The Hell that Runs: Season 1
by The Swooce
Summary: Four years after the events of the third season, those who were damned to stay in America with the undead finally have their fates revealed. T for violence, cursing, and sexual references. SEASON COMPLETE!
1. EPISODE 1: A NEW BEGINNING

**?'s POV:**

Four years, four goddamn years ever since I lost my love, and five years since the world ended. Gone were the days of watching television, barbecues, school, society in general, and I still couldn't believe this was reality. It felt like this was just a nightmare, but the difference that nightmares only end when one wakes up. Unfortunately, every time I woke up expecting to find myself back at home, I just found myself staring at the inside of the tent I had been sleeping in for around two weeks.

Unable to sleep, I rubbed my eyes and crawled out of the tent, squinting as the rising sun violated my vision. As soon as I got to my feet, I staggered over to a puddle of water that formed from the rainfall last night. Staring into it, I looked at the mess I was.

Long, messy, dirty, dandruff-ridden brown hair was dangling freely in front of my face, with a large beard to go along with the look. My green jacket was ripped at the sleeves and one of the pockets were missing. My one pair of pants were filthy, and the soles of my shoes were worn down badly. Pushing my hair out of my face, I stared back at my reflection, noticing all the healing bruises from previous near death experiences. Bending down, I stuck my face in the water and began to drink. As soon as I got up for air, I coughed from the muddy water, and vomited right into the puddle.

Well, there goes my water supply.

Spitting into the vomit pool, I decided to tend to my long, dead campfire and idly kick at the damp logs. Sadly, that the most entertaining thing to do ever since I ended up alone. Sighing, I sat up and dug around in my bag, pulling out a bottle of vitamins, then popped a vitamin in my mouth. Didn't really taste good, but hey, they're vitamins.

Getting back up, I patted my hip, feeling the survival knife on me, and decided to go on a nice stroll. Honestly, if there's anything good that's come out of the end of the world, it's that I'm able to appreciate how nice nature looks. Ever since buildings stopped being constructed, forests have been able to stay alive, and every now and then I see a few animals minding their own business. Sadly I have to kill them for food, but it's nice to see at least some lives haven't been interrupted by the end of the world.

Passing by a tree, I noticed a pike sticking out of a tree with a wooden sign hanging on it. Looking at the sign, I noticed words inscribed on it.

_MARKER #058_

Interesting, but I didn't pay too much mind to it, and I just simply walked back to my camp. That's when I noticed two people standing in my camp, taking my supplies out of the tent and putting them in a bag. Angered, I started towards them, but as I approached, I felt something cold press against the back of my head, and I recognized it as a gun. "Hey, we got a live one!" A deep male voice yelled out. The two others looked over at me, and beckoned me over. "Been a while since we've seen someone new." One of the people said, and I noticed he had a rather thick accent, likely scottish. "Move it, unless you want a bullet in the head."

Upon approaching the others, it was then I got a much better look at them. The man with the accent was tall and pale, with a thick beard and long, dark brown hair. The man next to him looked young, and had dark skin and a buzzcut. He was also rather small. "Looks like you're our property now." The short man spoke, grinning. "Look here short round, I'm not sure what type of sick fetish you're interested in, but count me out." The short man's grin faded, and he looked at the man holding the gun to my head. "Hey, Frank, knock him over." I felt a large foot collide with my back, sending me sprawling to the ground. Rolling over, I got a look at the other man. He was just as tall was the bearded man, but not quite. Like the short man, he also had dark skin, but it was more darker than the short man. He was also bald and had little to no facial hair.

"So, Lionel, got everything?" Frank asked, and the short man nodded. "Didn't find much, just a few candy bars." Lionel proceeded to crouch down in front of my face. "You got any other buddies?" I shook my head. No point in lying to them.

"Well, head on out, I'll scavenge more food for myself." I began to stand up again when Frank shoved me back down. "You're our property, so you are going to come with us." It was then where I decided to pop up and headbutt Lionel in the jaw, sending him falling on his back. "Asshole!" The scottish man yelled, and attempted to punch me in the jaw, which I was able to evade. Rolling away, I took my knife out of my holster, causing Frank to run over to me. In response, I swung my knife at Frank, cutting his arm open and causing him to shriek in pain.

It was then that I felt a fist collide with the back of my head, and I fell to the ground clutching my head. "Stay fucking down!" The scottish man yelled, likely the one who punched me. "Nice work Andrew." Lionel spoke, and kneeled down. "Not bad, but now we're gonna have to take you to Thomas and he'll have to see what to do with you." Lionel smirked and looked over at Andrew. "Before we go anywhere, why don't you tell us your name?"

"It's Quentin, but most call me Quinn."

* * *

**GUESS WHO'S BACK FROM THE DEAD?! IT'S ME, THE SWOOCE, AND I GOT A NEW VERSION OF HTW FOR YA!**

**Okay, so, I know I retired a while back, but I've decided to come out of retirement and bring you all a new series taking place in the Hell that Walks Universe, featuring Fan Favorite Quinn!**

**Plus, there will be at least a few more protagonists, all of which are returning characters!**

**Also, I've decided that there will be at least eight episodes per mid-season, then a brief break, then i'll finish up the season with eight more episodes, so it's like The Walking Dead TV show!**

**It's ambitious yes, but I want to try.**

**Now...STAT ME BUDDY OLE CHUM!**

**WOODS: Quentin**

**THOMAS'S GROUP: Thomas, Lionel, Andrew, Frank**

**SEE YA SOON**


	2. Thomas

**QUENTIN'S POV:**

_**Five Years Ago**_

"Quinn?"

I heard a familiar voice call my name, and slowly, I rolled over to meet the gaze of Garrett, who was rubbing my shoulder in an attempt to wake me up. "Hey, Quinn, come on, we need to get going, training won't get done by sleeping." I smiled at Garrett and pecked him on the nose, then rolled out of bed. "You're right Garrett, I'll be getting ready." I began to pull my pants on, and I felt Garrett sit next to me and peck me on the cheek, then wrap his arms around me. "Garrett, you know I can't get ready while you hold onto me."

"Sorry, I just feel so lucky that I have you." I smirked. "Well, I'm lucky I have you." Garrett released me from his grip, and let me finish getting dressed. "Hey, why don't we go out for breakfast?" Garrett asked. "You just want the pancakes from Fido, right?" Garrett nodded. "They're good, and come on, it's almost my birthday, why not?"

"Alright Garrett, Fido it is."

A few minutes later, we were sitting in a booth across from each other, and, after ordering our food, we decided to talk about the news. "Hey, Quinn, so, I was up late watching the news, and I saw something weird." Garrett spoke. "Yeah?"

"Well, there's been talk of this new disease going around, sightings in Florida and southern Alabama." Garrett spoke, and I couldn't help but chuckle at the mention of Florida. "Garrett, you know Florida is home to the weirdest people ever, hell, remember the headline about the alligator on the beer run?" Garrett snorted. "Hell yeah, that was absolutely nuts."

A waitress walked over to the table and proceeded to give us our food, pancakes for Garrett, and some eggs for me. "So, this disease, what about it?" I asked. "It apparently messes with the brain, and causes people to eat each other." I raised a brow at this. "So, zombies essentially?" Garrett shrugged. "Seems like it." Garrett replied, then took a few bites of his pancakes. "What do you think?"

It was then that the door to the cafe swung open, and a man shambled in. "Hey, what time is it?" Garrett asked. "Eight, too early to get drunk, unless he's dealing with a hangover."

At that precise moment, the man proceeded to go over to an elderly man and sink his teeth into his neck, and that's when we knew the disease was here.

_**Present Day**_

"We're here."

As soon as Lionel spoke those words, I looked up to where he was looking and saw massive walls towering over me. The walls were made of a combination of wood and metal, reminding me of a community Garrett and I belonged to at one point. Heh, it was also where we met Lex, Haley, the kids, Kirby, and many others.

"Hey, David, open up!" Frank yelled up to a bald man with a beard. The man, David, proceeded to walk over to a lever and pull it, causing a gate to rise. Standing behind the gate was another man with light brown hair and a beard. "Hey Daniel, how's the crops going?" Andrew asked. "Good, except for Brian accidentally getting pesticide in the tomatoes, but thank fuck Matthew was able to salvage them." Andrew chuckled. "See Thomas anywhere?" Lionel spoke up. "Yeah, he's in his office, lemme guess, new guy?" Lionel nodded. "Cut open Frank's arm deep." Frank glared at me as Lionel said that. "Well, get Jane to take a look at that." Daniel spoke, and walked off.

"Come on, we're going to meet Thomas." Lionel said. Andrew and Lionel proceeded to lead us inside a small house, and it was then that I took in the sights. The place looked like a large neighborhood, with a number of houses surrounding me while people walked around, some looking over at me in curiosity. "Keep moving." Andrew spoke, keeping me walking.

Eventually, a large office came into view, and Andrew and Lionel led me inside, then took me to the top floor, where a sign hung in front of a large door.

_Thomas Corvin_

Andrew proceeded to knock on the door and a voice emitted from the other side. "Who is it?" The deep voice said. "We got a live one, trouble maker, we came to introduce you to him." Andrew replied. "Come in."

Lionel pushed the door open, and I got a look at the man sitting in a desk across from me. He had a shaved head, with a somewhat thick beard on his chin, but he had no mustache. He also wore a black dress shirt with the top button undone, which just barely exposed his tattoos.

"So, who's this?" The man asked. "His name is Quentin, we found him in the expanded territory we set up a week ago." Lionel spoke, and his response was something I instantly picked up on. According to Lionel, they had set up the territory a week ago, while I had set up camp two weeks ago. Essentially, they had built on my property.

"Wait, hang on, you built that territory a week back?" I asked, and Lionel nodded. "So?" I glared at Lionel. "I set up camp two weeks ago, so essentially, you built onto my property." Lionel proceeded to burst out laughing at this while Andrew kept a stoic expression. "Really? You do realize that doesn't matter!"

"Lionel, bring him over here." Lionel proceeded to shove me towards Thomas, and I was barely able to catch myself. Thomas looked at me, then smirked. "So, Quentin, here's the thing." Thomas leaned over. "I really don't care if you were there first, what matters is that we claimed the territory first, so I recommend you put a cork in it." I snorted at this, causing Thomas to raise a brow. "I'd tell you the same thing, but I can tell you already got a cork in your a-"

Thomas proceeded to grab my hair and yank it, causing me to yelp in pain. Looking at Thomas, his previous cocky demeanor was gone, and replaced by an intense glare. "You know, I don't like your attitude, and I can already tell that you and I aren't going to get along." Regardless, I kept my smile. "What gave it away? The fact that I cut open one of your people's arm, or when I said you had a cork in your ass?"

Thomas tugged on my hair harder, but not before I heard a small chortle from Andrew at the cork jab. "Andrew, Lionel, get this fuck out of my sight, and lock him up, we're going to make him...obedient."

* * *

**Hey guys, I'm back with another chapter of Hell that Runs, and now we met the leader and a few other characters. We also got a flashback to Quentin's and Garrett's first day in the apocalypse!**

**BTW, I realized that eight episodes per mid season is too much, so I'm going to stick with five per midseason, then take a break, then come back!**

**Anyways, stat me mister Rogers!**

**Alive = Bold **Unknown = Reg Text _Dead =_ _Italic **Undead = Italic Bold**_

**QUENTIN'S GROUP - Quentin, Garrett**

**SOUTH CAROLINA - Lionel, Frank, Andrew, Thomas, Daniel, David, Matthew, Brian, Jane**


	3. Locked Up

**QUENTIN'S POV:**

_**Two months after first encounter**_

"Hey, Quinn, we got a problem."

Looking up from my book, I noticed Garrett staring at me with a concerned look on his face. His face was more sunken in, likely from the lack of sleep he had been getting the last few days. Additionally, his hair was rather unkempt, making his red hair look almost like straw.

"What's up Garrett?" I asked as I set the book aside and rubbed my stubble. "We're out of food." I snorted at this, much to Garrett's confusion. "What's so funny?" Garrett asked. "You do realize we can get more, hell, there's a 7/11 down the way." Garrett looked away at this. "Yeah, but the place has been picked clean, same with everywhere else."

I shot up at this, shocked by Garrett's revelation, and I ran my hands through my hair in a panic. No food left within a good amount of miles, and if we wanted food, we'd have to go further and further away from the house, and that was way too risky. "Quinn, we can't stay at the house." Garrett said, and put his hand on my shoulder. "Dammit, we had something!" I yelled. "We had a plan, and now that plan went bust!"

"Quinn, look, all we need is a new plan, and you're smart, you kept the two of us safe for two months." Taking a deep breath, I let my hands fall to my side and smiled at Garrett. "What did I do to deserve you?" Garrett proceeded to hug me tightly. "I could ask you the same thing." Garrett let me go, and I looked over at the door.

"Garrett, I think it's time to leave this house behind, and survive."

_**Present Day**_

_**Two Weeks Later**_

I idly chipped at the stone wall with my incredibly jagged fingernails as I sat in the small, dark cell. The cell itself looked like it was built a while back, likely about six weeks ago or something. I'm going to guess that I was the first person to be thrown in here. At least there was a bit of light, so I could at least see what was going on outside. The few times I looked outside usually contained people walking. The most interesting conversations I heard involved two women talking about their day and an older black man talking with a young man with long brown hair about Thomas.

Speaking of Thomas, he was unfortunately my most common visitor. The majority of the time, he told me if I were to obey him and "know my place", he'd let me out. Considering that I'm still in here, it's obvious as to which option I chose. Thankfully, Thomas wasn't a complete monster, as he had either Frank, Andrew or Lionel bring food down to me once every two days. Not perfect, but I'll live.

I heard the door open, and, much to my surprise, it was a different person this time. It was a young female, with long, blonde hair and a narrow face. She looked to be in her early 20's, and she wore a red jacket with brown pants. She held a tray with an apple, an energy bar, a tomato and a cup of water. As soon as the woman looked at me, she paused, looking taken aback at me. Knowing my luck, she was probably surprised at my appearance.

"Hi." The woman said. "Are you...Quentin?" I nodded, and the woman shook her head a bit. "Sorry, I just...didn't expect you to look like that." I weakly smiled in response, and the woman slid the tray until a small gap under the gate. "Never seen someone from outside before?" The woman nodded, a fearful look on her face. "Um, why are you exactly here?"

"I got taken here by Thomas's cronies, apparently I built onto their area, and now I belong to them." The woman raised a brow at this. "Thomas said it was because you slashed open Frank's arm." I chuckled at this. "Well, that I did in self-defense, and hey, the asshole's not dead, right?" The woman shrugged.

"I mean, yeah?" It was then when I took a bite out of the apple, all while staring at the woman. "What's your name?" I asked. "It's Amy." The woman replied. "Nice to meet you Amy." Amy nodded and looked behind her, then sat on the floor. "Um, would you like to know about this place?"

I shrugged. "Sure, why not." Amy paused for a brief moment, then began to speak. "This was a town, Rock Hill." Amy said. "So, we're in South Carolina?" I asked. "Yeah, there's a few people who lived here before the outbreak, Joseph, Taylor, David, those three I do remember living here prior."

"You from here as well?" I asked, and Amy shook her head. "No, I'm from Kentucky along with my brother." Amy replied. "He's also here as well, same with my boyfriend." I nodded my head to show I was listening. "What else is here, besides a douchebag leader?" Amy paused, and gave me a conflicted look.

"Look, I'll be honest, Thomas is a massive asshole, but he's kept us safe for a very long time, and I can't fault him for that." I raised a brow at this. "You do realize that he's kept me in here because he wants me to be 'obedient'." Amy looked at the floor once I said this, looking even more conflicted. "Quentin, if I'm going to be honest, it's for the best if you just listen to him."

"I'm not going to obey that bald fuck." I replied, and that's when the door slammed open, and I mentally groaned once a grinning Thomas walked downstairs, with two men at his side, one being having long black hair and pale skin and a thick beard and the other being tall and bald with a thin beard.

"Thank you Amy, we'll take it from here." Thomas said, and Amy left the room. "So, Quentin, are you obedient?" In response, I just flipped him off. A loud sigh followed. "Fuck it, if you won't be obedient, we're gonna have to force you." Thomas turned to the bald man. "Claudio, open the cell, Jeffrey, keep your gun on him, it's time to put him to work."

The bald man proceeded to open the cell while the bearded man grabbed me and shoved me out of the cell, then pressed his gun to my back. "Move it." Thomas led me outside, and I noticed a few people look over at me curiously, notably a man with short black hair and a beard and a woman with brown hair next to him, and a pale, red haired man wearing a beret. Thomas then took out a radio and spoke into it.

"Frank, get Gabriel, Brock, Jonathan and Ariya out here, we're going on a lumber run."

* * *

**Well, we got more flashbacks of Quentin's early experience in the apocalypse with Garrett, and now Thomas has had enough of Quentin's reluctance. We also met a nice lady named Amy!**

**Bit of a transitional chapter, but that's fine.**

**ANYWAYS, STAT ME BOB ROSS!**

Alive = Bold Unknown = Reg Text _Dead =_ _Italic Undead = Italic Bold_

QUENTIN'S GROUP - Quentin, Garrett

ROCK HILL - Lionel, Frank, Andrew, Thomas, Daniel, David, Matthew, Brian, Jane, Jessica, Cassie, Thaddeus, Charles, Taylor, Joseph, Amy, Claudio, Jeffrey, Gabriel, Brock, Jonathan, Ariya, Fergal, Catherine


	4. The Lumber Yard

**QUENTIN'S POV:**

_**Two Weeks after leaving the house**_

"Quinn, pass me the chips?"

Honestly, at the point, I was regretting leaving the house. At least with the house, we had a general idea as to what was around us, and which places we could at least use. However, after a two week trek away from the house, it was then that I realized that we were basically walking around aimlessly. Granted everyone else was likely doing that, but it still made me uneasy.

Sighing, I tossed the bag of chips over to Garrett, who proceeded to take a small handful out of the bag, then hand the bag back. "What's with that?" I asked, as I had never seen Garrett manage his own food. "Well, considering the amount of food we have currently, I'm trying to eat a bit less, but enough that I can still keep going without a snack break." Garrett replied, and I smirked at him. "Garrett, it's alright, you don't have to do that." Garrett shook his head. "Quinn, you do realize that due to me being more, well…" Garrett patted his round belly. "I can go for longer, plus, you need to eat too."

"Garrett, seriously-" I began to say, but Garrett cut me off. "Without energy, you'll die, we need to conserve our food and make it last as long as it can." I really couldn't argue with Garrett there, and arguing was definitely Garrett's most powerful weapon. He was previously on the debate team back in high school from what he told me, and he had a reputation for having some of the most well-structured, near unbeatable arguments.

"Garrett, you never told me why you went onto the debate team." I said, hoping to steer the conversation away from food. Garrett smiled. "Well, I wanted to make a difference." Garrett began. "Let me tell you, it wasn't easy considering I was a gay kid in a catholic high school." I chuckled at this. "Yet you managed." Garrett nodded. "It didn't take long to move out of the role as the gay kid and to the shredder."

"Shredder?" I asked. "So many arguments and declarations in school were so poorly put together, and I had a habit of verbally ripping them to shreds, hence the name." At this, I tossed the chip bag back to Garrett, and he just looked at me with confusion. "Hold onto it, you'll need it."

It was then that a rustling from the bushes sounded out, and I shot to my feet. "Hey, asshole, come on out!" I yelled, causing Garrett to flinch. Seconds later, a woman with dark skin and black hair stepped out of the bushes and raised her hands. "Easy there, I mean no harm." She said. "How can we be sure?" I replied.

"Listen, I've kinda been watching you for a while, and I noticed your food was low." I raised a brow at this. "You planning something?" I asked, and the woman nodded, then quickly raised her hands. "It's not a raid, I promise, I'm just here to offer you sanctuary." The woman pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to me slowly, which was understandable. Gotta be cautious and all that.

"It's a Walmart, good supplies, a lot of people, safety in general, it's a great deal." The woman said. "What's the catch?" I asked. The woman shook her head. "No catch, we're just trying to make this place safe." I looked back at Garrett, who was staring at me with a hopeful look in his eyes.

"Alright, we'll bite, but before we go, who are you exactly?" I asked to the woman. "My name's Haley."

_**Present day**_

It was rather disorienting once I found myself back in the woods where I've spent so long. I guess spending two months inside the cell really messed with me a bit, so there were a few times I got distracted, causing Frank to press his gun to back back in an attempt to make me move.

Additionally, I had my wrists bound with a zip tie, making me wonder how exactly I could gather lumber with my wrists like this. Looking ahead, I saw a few new faces I haven't seen before. At the front of the group was a tan man with short black hair and a thick beard holding a rifle. Following him was a somewhat lighter tanned man with long black hair and an orange shirt. Behind him was a young man with blond hair, and next to him was a slightly tan man with a baseball cap.

Eventually, a large clearing came into view, and a wooden cart full of lumber equipment was set to the side. "Alright everyone, you know the drill, the wall is getting weaker and we need to reinforce it." Frank began. "Meet back here within a hour, and make sure the man with his hands bound doesn't attempt escape."

The group proceeded to walk over to a cluster of trees and the long haired tan man handed me a hatchet. Sighing, I walked over to a tree and began to chop at it with the hatchet, but I might as well be punching it due to the awkward position my hands were in.

"Hey, you need help?" I heard a voice ask. I turned my head to see the blond man staring at me with a curious look. Honestly, I wasn't in the best mood for talking, so I just kept chopping at the tree. "I haven't seen you around before." The man continued. I still ignored him. "Are you new here?" Screw it, since he won't leave me alone, why not indulge him?

"Not really, two months since I was taken here." The man raised a brow. "Taken here?" He asked. "By who?" I looked over at Frank, who was keeping an eye on everyone there. "Him, Lionel and Andrew were stealing shit from my campsite, and they're basically holding me hostage." The man looked away at this. "Sorry to hear that man, I wish I could help you."

At that, the long haired man and the man with the cap walked over. "Hey Gabriel, how's the new guy?" The cap man said, and Gabriel shrugged. "He's being held captive by Thomas and his cronies." The cap man looked at Frank, who was in a discussion with the man with the rifle.

"Fuck, why am I not surprised, Thomas is an asshole." The long haired man nodded. "Damn right, I mean, why is he the leader first off?" Gabriel shrugged. "No idea." He then looked over at me. "You know, we never got your name, what is it?" Gabriel asked. "It's Quentin, but most call me Quinn." Gabriel smiled. "Well, my name's Gabriel, and this is Brock and Jonathan." He gestured to the cap man and the long haired man in that order. "Have you met my sister Amy yet?" Gabriel asked.

Ah, so this was her brother.

"Yeah, nice girl." I replied, and Brock gave me a small look. Must be her boyfriend or something. "Don't worry, I'm not interested in her." Brock smiled a bit at this. "It's cool man, Amy usually gets that compliment." Jonathan proceeded to look at my handcuffs. "What exactly happened with Thomas?"

"He wanted me to be obedient to him, and I refused." Jonathan snorted a bit at this. "Yeah, Thomas does not like being challenged." Jonathan said. "It's like he wants everyone to bow down to him immediately." I smirked a bit, considering that really seemed like Thomas. "Honestly, I'm thinking about challenging his authority." Jonathan spoke.

"Dude, that'd be so refreshing if you managed to gain authority over him." Brock replied. "Yeah Jonathan, you'd be a great leader." Gabriel said.

It was at that moment where a lurker came from out of nowhere and grabbed onto Brock. "Shit!" Brock yelled. Gabriel proceeded to swing an axe at the lurker grabbing Brock, decapitating it easily. "You alright?" Gabriel said, and Brock nodded.

"Shit, lurkers!" The other tan man, Ariya, yelled out. "We need to get out of here!" Ariya proceeded to fire at a few lurkers, some going down with a shot to the head. Behind me, Jonathan proceeded to swing at a lurker with a hatchet, taking it down. "Move it!" Brock yelled. "Split into two groups, less lurkers that way!" Brock and I proceeded to go one way, while Gabriel and Jonathan went the other, and, like Brock predicted, the lurkers spread out.

Brock and I were easily able to make it to Ariya and Frank, but as I looked back, I saw Gabriel cornered by three lurkers while Jonathan swung at a two others. "We gotta help them!" Brock yelled. Brock started to run, but Frank held him back. "They're dead anyways, we need to leave!" Frank yelled, causing Brock to glare intensely at him. "Jonathan is handling two of them, Gabriel needs help!" Frank shook his head. "It doesn't matter."

I took this opportunity to run to Gabriel while Brock yelled at Frank. As Gabriel was struggling with a lurker, I quickly grabbed the lurker around the neck and yanked it down, then stomped on its head. "Hurry!" Another lurker pounced at me, but I side stepped it, sending it face first into a tree, and a boot to the head crushed its skull effortlessly. As Gabriel began to run, the last lurker came after me, and I quickly kicked its knee, knocking it over. Another stomp put it down.

It was then that Frank, Brock and Ariya ran over, Frank fuming. "What the fuck was that?!" Frank yelled. "We had to leave, and yet you decided to disobey me!" Brock glared at Frank. "Three lurkers, fucking three, you had a gun, you just had to shoot them, but no, you decided to pussy out!" Brock yelled. "By the way, I love how Quentin, even while tied, was able to kill them without having to use his hands!" Frank aimed his gun at Brock.

"Know. Your. Place."

A yelp sounded out behind us, and I looked over to see Jonathan slash a lurker across the skull, and then look at his pinkie finger. "Fuck, fuck!" We walked over to him, and there was a small, but unmistakable wound in the shape of a tooth mark. Jonathan was bitten.

"Oh god, oh god!" Jonathan yelled out. At this, Ariya aimed his gun at him, but Jonathan raised his hands. "Wait, wait!" Ariya paused. "Just, let me say goodbye to Trinity, please." Ariya slowly lowered his gun and nodded. "Come on Frank, let him say goodbye." Frank sighed. "Fine."

Not on my watch.

I slowly picked up the hatchet that Jonathan dropped, wiped it on my pants to remove some of the blood, and looked over at Jonathan. "Jonathan, can I see the bite?" Jonathan shrugged and extended his pinkie finger. That's when I swung the hatchet at his pinkie, severing it in a swift move, and causing Jonathan to howl in pain. "What the fuck?!" Brock yelled. Ariya aimed his gun at me.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Ariya yelled, and I dropped the hatchet. "Listen, it works, I've seen it before, he won't have to die!" I yelled back. "He'll die of blood loss if we don't get him back!" Gabriel yelled. Sighing, Ariya lowered his gun and grabbed onto Jonathan and started to run with him, Gabriel following close behind. Before I went to follow, Frank stepped in front of me.

"You are so fucked." Frank growled, then grabbed me by the hand and pulled me along.

Yep, I was fucked.

* * *

**Well, a new chapter and new people have been met, and we had our first zombie fight of the series, as well as the first bite and amputation of the season! So woohoo!**

**NOW STAT ME GREG HEFFLEY!**

Alive = Bold Unknown = Reg Text _Dead =_ _Italic Undead = Italic Bold_

**QUENTIN'S GROUP - Quentin, Garrett**

**ROCK HILL - Lionel, Frank, Andrew, Thomas, Daniel, David, Matthew, Brian, Jane, Jessica, Cassie, Thaddeus, Charles, Taylor, Joseph, Amy, Claudio, Jeffrey, Gabriel, Brock, Jonathan, Ariya, Fergal, Catherine, Trinity**


	5. Aftermath

**QUENTIN'S POV:**

_**-A few minutes later after meeting Haley-**_

Minutes after meeting Haley, the three of us stepped into a car that Haley had. Honestly, I was surprised that cars weren't being wrecked already by a bunch of reckless hoodlums that took the opportunity to drive a ferrari or a bugatti freely. To be fair, I wouldn't exactly blame them for doing that, as I'm pretty guilty of using the apocalypse to grab a few pop figures. Sadly, I left them back at the house, but hey, at least I can get more. For the past few minutes, I had decided to get some well-deserved shut eye, and I was sprawled out in the back of the car while Garrett and Haley had a conversation about something.

"So, Garrett, what'd you do before this?" Haley asked to Garrett. "Oh, I was a science teacher." Garrett replied. "What about your buddy?" I couldn't help but chuckle at this. "Believe or not, he was training to be in the UFC, there was a local boxing event and let me tell you, Quinn is like a reborn hercules when it comes to the ring." A smile grew on my face at that description. Garrett was usually fond of my skills, and usually complimented my abs a lot.

"Must be strong." Haley replied. "What about you?" Garrett asked. "I was actually a construction worker." I briefly looked up just in time to see Garrett raise a brow. "Really, you don't look like one." Haley gave him an odd look. "What makes you say that?" I watched as Garrett's face immediately went pale at the look Haley gave him, and he likely knew what Haley was getting at.

"Sorry! I didn't mean for it to sound like-" Haley chuckled. "Don't worry, I get that a lot, men just can't understand that women can do their job just as well." Garrett let out a rather uncomfortable laugh, and I couldn't really blame him for that. Haley proceeded to look back at me and rub my shoulder.

"Hey, we're almost there, get up." Sighing, I sat up and was immediately greeted by the sight of numerous cars blocking the entrance to a garage, and Haley took out a radio and spoke into it.

"Open up, we got some new people." Haley spoke, and a person proceeded to walk over and pull a tow cable, causing one of the cars to roll out of the way. Haley then smiled and turned to me.

"Welcome to your new home."

_**Present day**_

Two hours later, I found myself back in the cell while a large amount of screaming from people above sounded out. Sighing, I stood up and looked out the bars to see Andrew just barely holding back a dark women while six others watched in astonishment, all of them new. Christ, how many people were here?

"I demand to speak to that son of a bitch!" The woman yelled. "Trinity, stop, we'll handle it!" Andrew yelled. "Bullshit, he cut off my brother's pinkie!" Fuck it, if Andrew won't let me explain myself, I'll do it myself. "Because he was bit!"

The woman stopped struggling and glanced over at me, same with the male voice. The male then came into view, and I noticed he looked very much like Jonathan. Must be twins or something. "Are you serious?" The man asked. "It works, plus it's only the pinkie finger, so he'll be fine." The woman glared daggers at me. "You fucking cut off my husband's pinkie, you deserve to be punished!" Andrew nodded. "Look, we'll punish him Trinity."

"I saved him for fucks sake!" I yelled. "You cut his finger off!" A man with shaggy brown hair spoke up. "You deserve to die!" Another man with numerous tattoos spoke up. "You ruined his life!" A woman with blonde hair yelled. "Shut up Amanda, you only care because you're trying to steal him from me!" Trinity yelled. Amanda and Trinity began to go after each other, but quickly a young man with brown hair and another woman with blond hair separated them.

"Everyone leave now!" Andrew yelled. "I don't give a damn what type of punishment you want him to suffer, just fucking leave before I get a goddamn headache!" At this, the others began to scatter while Andrew sat down on a nearby chair. "Goddammit…" Andrew mumbled. Andrew then turned to me

"Why'd you have to fucking speak up?" Andrew asked. "I had to defend myself asshole." Andrew glared at me. "You know, you're lucky I even let you speak." Andrew said, then sighed loudly. "God, why do I get the shit jobs." I raised a brow. "What do you mean?" I asked. "Like, Lionel gets to go on supply runs and Frank oversees a lot of lumber gathering, and meanwhile, I'm forced to sit on my ass and guard."

"What do you want to do?" I asked. "Gardening, it's relaxing to me." Andrew replied. "Wait, why the fuck am I talking to you?" Andrew glared at me, and I just smiled. "Aw, I thought we had something." Andrew sighed. "Whatever, Thomas wants to execute you in the morning."

"Wait, what?" I yelled in surprise, and Andrew just simply walked away. Well, I was fucked even more. Thomas was going to execute me, and, knowing my luck, he'd like to do it himself.

I spent the rest of the day sitting in the cell, terrified of the impending execution. Four years of surviving, and this is how I go out. Not by being bitten, or being shot during a fight, or by even being devoured. No, I'm being executed by a massive douchebag because I saved one of his men, even though I didn't have to. I decided to take what seemed like my final nap, and just as I laid on the cold floor, I heard the familiar sound of the door unlocking. Odd, it wasn't even morning yet.

"Quentin." I heard a familiar voice speak. I looked over at the source of the voice and saw Amy of all people standing there holding the door open. "Come on." Amy spoke. "What's going on?" I asked confused. Amy sighed.

"We've had enough of Thomas, me, Brock and Gabriel are leaving, and you're coming with us."

* * *

**Looks like Quentin was able to avoid execution thanks to Amy, Gabriel and Brock! Good for him, he got new friends!**

**NOW STAT ME CRAIG MAMMALTON**

Alive = Bold Unknown = Reg Text _Dead =_ _Italic Undead = Italic Bold_

**QUENTIN'S GROUP - Quentin, Garrett**

**HALEY'S GROUP - Haley**

**ROCK HILL - Lionel, Frank, Andrew, Thomas, Daniel, David, Matthew, Brian, Jane, Jessica, Cassie, Thaddeus, Charles, Taylor, Joseph, Amy, Claudio, Jeffrey, Gabriel, Brock, Jonathan, Ariya, Fergal, Catherine, Trinity, Jey, Jon, Randal, Amanda, Noam, Leah**


	6. Out of the Fire

_**QUENTIN'S POV:**_

_**-56 Weeks after arriving at the base-**_

Weeks later, I found myself in a decent position as a guard for the base while Garrett got a position as a teacher for the kids from nine A.M. to two P.M.. Simple schedule, and the kids were thankfully respectful to Garrett. Unfortunately, when it comes to me, it was a different story.

It didn't take long for mine and Garrett's relationship to become well-known, but due to Garrett being the only teacher and threatening to quit if he received more jeers from a bunch of assholes, the insults became directed at me. I was happy that Garrett wasn't being targeted, but the amount of slurs thrown at me was getting pretty damn annoying.

Luckily, not everyone there was a total asswipe. Haley was a good example of this, as she was similar to me, although she was the recipient of sexist slurs rather than homophobic ones. There was also a teenager who we usually called Lex, who was a good kid with an older brother in the army or navy. I'm not sure which one. Also, there was a quiet teenager called Kirby, who got the name from his odd skin color that really, no one knows why he has that pinkish skin. Haley also had a few kids, although they weren't hers, and their names were Gage and Paige. The two were twins, and also appeared to have close bond with Haley and another guy, Ben, who was their uncle. Unfortunately, it wasn't the same with their douchebag of a father, who also would actually hit the two. Sadly, every time this was brought up to the leader, it was ignored.

Speaking of the leader, he was not at all fit to lead the community. He was insanely protective of his bullshit rules, and, like mentioned earlier, didn't seem care about the kids or any of the residents in general. He also was obsessed with this group that ran away a while back, and would usually send group after group out to find them, but with no luck. It was after one situation that caused me to leave for good.

It was during one of my watches, where I was sitting with Ben on the ledge of the walmart. "So, Quinn, I've been meaning to ask you something." Ben said. Curious, I looked over at him. "Yeah?" I asked. Ben began twiddling with his fingers before he spoke. "So, I've been thinking, considering the state this fucking place is in…" Ben began. "...me, Haley and the kids have been planning on leaving."

"You're asking me to come with you?" I asked, and Ben slowly nodded. "I convinced Lex and Kirby to come with us, and Haley said we needed protection, and considering you're the best shot of us all…" I shrugged at this. "Sure." Ben's eyes widened. "Really?" I nodded in response, and that's when a man with long black hair and tan skin stomped over, and I unfortunately recognized him as Eric, who was also sadly the father of Gage and Paige.

"So, Ben, you're planning on leaving, huh?" Eric asked, causing Ben to stand up. "Yeah, so?" Eric shook his head. "You're taking my kids aren't you?" Eric asked again, getting closer to Ben. "The kids that _I _own." Ben glared at him. "You fucking hit them, they don't deserve to be hit!"

"They're my fucking kids Ben, how dare you try to take them away!" Eric yelled. "They aren't your kids, they're your fucking punching bags!" Ben yelled back. "Eric, I'm leaving with the kids, this place is falling apart, and if you want to die here, that's fine by me, but I am not letting the kids die with your pathetic ass!"

That's when Eric proceeded to shove Ben hard, causing Ben to tumble off the roof, and seconds later, a loud crack was heard, and on the concrete was Ben's still, un-moving body with blood pooling around his head.

_**PRESENT DAY**_

Well, thank fuck for Amy. Without her, along with her brother and boyfriend, I'd be dead. Amy helped me up to my help, and I briefly heard her curse under her breath, which sounded like: "You're fucking heavy". In response, I chuckled and nodded at this. "I know." Amy led me upstairs once I got to my feet, where Gabriel and Brock were waiting. "He alright?" Gabriel asked. "Yeah, he's good." Amy replied. That's when I noticed Brock holding a rifle in his hands, which he quickly noticed.

"Lucky for me, since I mouthed off to Frank, I was placed on guard duty all of tonight, so no one will be suspicious if you guys are with me." Brock replied. "If there's one other thing I'm glad Frank is, is that he's stupid." Gabriel snickered at this. "Dude's got muscles for brains." I couldn't help but laugh a bit at this, but I did it in a low voice, just so I wouldn't be caught.

"Any way we can sneak out?" I asked. "Yeah, over the wall." Brock replied, and began to walk off. I began to follow him, but Amy grabbed my shoulder. "Wait, Quentin, just…" Amy paused. "If we do get caught, try not to kill anyone." I raised a brow. "What if I have no choice?" Amy sighed. "Then at least do it quietly." Amy replied reluctantly. "There's still good people here, and well, it's not their fault you're in this."

"Fine." Amy, Gabriel and I proceeded to follow Brock over to a small shack, and Brock proceeded to step inside briefly. "That's the armory." Gabriel said, and minutes later, Brock came out with a few pistols and a bag of ammo. "Luckily Sesugh wasn't guarding the place." Brock spoke, then pointed at a nearby ladder that was propped up against the wall of the safe-zone. "Up there." The four of us slowly moved over to the ladder, and just as we were about to get there, Brock looked over to the left and his eyes widened. "Hide!" He whispered. The three of us quickly ducked down behind some bushes in front of a house just as Brock began talking to a man with black hair.

"Hey Brock, where you heading with all that?" The man asked. "Oh, hey Colby, Thomas asked me to bring this stuff over to his place." Brock replied, causing the man to raise a brow. "Really?" The man, Colby asked. "You're bringing him guns to his place while he isn't there?" Brock shrugged. "I'm on thin ice already when I mouthed off to Frank, so I'm not willing to push my luck further."

"Makes sense, besides, Frank's a dick anyway, same with Lionel." Colby proceeded to leave after that, and Brock beckoned us over. "We're good, Amy, since you're light, you go first." Amy shrugged and climbed up first, followed by Gabriel, then me, and finally Brock. Brock then led us over to a part of the wall where another ladder was. "Down here." Brock climbed down first, followed by Amy, Gabriel, and finally me.

Holy crap, we actually made it out.

"Let's go, knowing Colby, he'll start getting suspicious." The four of us proceeded to dash off into the woods, away from the base, and hopefully, away from Thomas.

* * *

**Well, the flashback gave us our first death in the form of Ben from Howe's Life, who looked like a fan-favorite at least from what I've seen. Also, the escape from Rock Hill was a success! Only question is...where will the others go?**

**NOW...STAT ME BUZZ ALDRIN!**

Alive = Bold Unknown = Reg Text _Dead =_ _Italic Undead = Italic Bold_

**QUENTIN'S GROUP - Quentin, Garrett**

**HALEY'S GROUP - Haley, Lex, Gage, Paige, Kirby, Eric, **_Ben_

**ROCK HILL - Lionel, Frank, Andrew, Thomas, Daniel, David, Matthew, Brian, Jane, Jessica, Cassie, Thaddeus, Charles, Taylor, Joseph, Amy, Claudio, Jeffrey, Gabriel, Brock, Jonathan, Ariya, Fergal, Catherine, Trinity, Jey, Jon, Randal, Amanda, Noam, Leah, Sesugh, Colby**


	7. Plans in the Making

_**QUENTIN'S POV:**_

_**-Four hours after Ben's murder-**_

It was going to be tonight. That's what it was going to be, regardless of Ben's murder. Tonight was going to be our escape. Mine, Garrett's, Haley's, Lex's, Kirby's, and the kids, it was our escape. It's what Ben would've wanted. Speaking of Ben, his death was what pushed Haley to make the escape tonight with the others. I remembered when I told her and the kids about Ben, and how upset they were.

Later that night, Garrett and I met Haley and the others at where we would meet up first, which was currently Kirby's room, since it was the hardest to find. I mean, who would suspect a breakout coming from a janitor's closet? Once Garrett and I arrived, Haley went over the game plan with us.

"Okay, so, we obviously can't stay here, mainly because the leader is running this place into the ground." Haley began. "So, we need to leave." The rest of us nodded in response, and Haley turned to Lex. "Fill them in." Haley spoke, and Lex nodded at her. "Alright, so the trucks they use for supply runs are outside, and thankfully, they're fully gassed, so if we steal one, we can get some good distance before they realize we're gone." Lex looked over at Kirby. "Kirby was able to find out the blind spots for the cameras, so if we just follow the path he drew out, we'll be able to get there undetected." It was then that Kirby took out two duffel bags. "What's in there?" I asked.

"Food, water, guns, stuff we need." Kirby replied, his voice quiet as usual. "Good, we'll need that." Haley said, then proceeded to take a small brown shopping bag out and reach inside, then handed us each a gun except for the kids, which Gage noticed instantly.

"What about Paige and I?" Gage asked confused. "Gage, Paige you two have a special mission, and that's to keep lookout and warn us if anyone comes by." Gage smiled at this and Paige nodded. That was thankfully easy.

A few seconds later, we started our escape, keeping an eye on Lex as he led the way along the path. Every now and then, I looked back worried for the others, but they stayed close. Eventually, we made it outside to the truck, and Lex made a quick dash to it and got in the passenger's seat. I was a bit surprised, considering that Lex seemed like the person who wanted to drive.

"What the fuck are you doing?" The rest of us paused and slowly turned around to see Eric standing behind us pointing a rifle. "You're really fucking leaving now?" Eric asked, venom in his voice. "Yeah, we can't stand being here." Haley replied as she held onto the kids. "You lot are fucking stupid, especially when you're taking my kids!" Eric yelled, and it was then that I realized that Eric was going to be a very, very big problem. Eric was going to wake up the whole base screaming like that, and we couldn't afford that.

"Get back inside, or I will shoot." Eric growled, and aimed at Haley. "It's not a request, it's a fucking order, so get the fuck back inside." I looked over at Gage and Paige and sighed. "You two, close your eyes." I whispered, and thankfully the two did.

Eric wasn't able to react in time before quickly aimed my pistol at him and shot him in the chest.

_**-PRESENT DAY-**_

_**-Twenty Minutes Later-**_

Twenty minutes later, when we got a far enough distance from Rock Hill, the four of us decided to take a breather near a fallen log, which Amy and Gabriel sat on instantly. Meanwhile, Brock looked back in terror in fear that someone followed us, and breathed a sigh of relief once he saw no one.

"We're good, we're good." Brock heaved, then turned to us. "That, that could've been bad." I nodded at this, and I noticed Brock take out a radio. "What's that?" I asked. "Radio, I took it just to listen in on their conversations, and maybe we'll be able to stay ahead of them."

"Smart." I replied, and Brock nodded. "So, where are we heading to?" Gabriel spoke up. "I mean, we got out of Rock Hill, now what?" I rubbed the back of my head at this, as I realized I had not planned this far ahead. Granted I was dragged into this plan randomly, and I didn't have any time to think about where I would go. "Don't look at me, I just got out, I didn't have time to think."

"Come on Quentin, you know the outside better than us, you gotta know some place!" Amy exclaimed. I racked my brain a bit until I remembered a train station I had passed by about six months ago. "Train station, follow me." I said, even though I had a very vague idea of where the train station actually was. I guess I just had to look for train tracks and I'd be good.

"Hey, um, Quentin, can I talk to you, privately?" Brock spoke up. I looked over at Gabriel and Amy, and told them to go on ahead, but not too far. Once they did, I slowed my pace to match Brock's.

"You uh, know about girls?" Brock asked, a blush rising to his face. "Vaguely." I replied, curious on where Brock was going with this. "You uh...ever been in a relationship with one?" I shook my head, which surprised Brock. "I'm surprised, mainly because I'm guessing that under all that hair is a handsome guy." I couldn't help but smile at this.

"Thanks for the compliment." I replied. "Seriously, you need a girlfriend, they're missing out." Brock spoke, and I just gave him an odd look. "Brock, I'm not interested in a girlfriend, if you get my meaning." Brock paused for moment, then his eyes widened. "Oh...you uh…" Brock rubbed the back of his head.

"What were you going to ask me?" I asked, and Brock shook his head. "Nevermind, I...I don't know if you'd understand." I huffed at this. "Brock, I grew up with two mothers, I'm sure I can help a bit." Brock took a deep breath, then reached in his pocket and pulled out a ring. "I...I want to propose to Amy."

"Then do it." I spoke, causing Brock to raise a brow. "I know, but...I'm not sure when I should, I mean...we're currently in the middle of the woods going nowhere, and while I wanted to marry her back in Rock Hill, I just couldn't find a ring." Brock replied. "Why exactly do you want to marry her?" I asked. "Get her pregnant or something?"

Brock shook his head again. "No way, my dad was very, very strict about premarital sex." I noticed that Brock's expression faltered a bit, and he went silent for a bit. "I uh...lost my dad early in this, it was about a month after I met Amy and Gabriel."

"Sorry." I replied, and Brock nodded. "What happened to your parents?" Brock asked, likely in an attempt to get his mind off his dad. "I'm not sure, my moms are back in Canada." Brock nodded. "I hope they're alright." Brock spoke, and I paused for a moment before answering because honestly, after everything that's happened, I've kinda given up hope on everything.

"Yeah." A long pause again followed. "I think you should wait until you get into a new community to propose." I spoke, and Brock nodded. "Yeah, yeah, that's a good idea." It was then that we ended up catching up to Gabriel and Amy as the two were talking about possible communities. Once the two noticed us, they slowed their speed to match ours.

"Hey Quentin, if we find a community, you should stay with us." Amy spoke, a smile on her face. I sighed at this.

"Sorry, but once you get to a safe place, I'm going off on my own again." Gabriel raised a brow. "Really?" Gabriel asked. "But, you must be so lonely out there!" I shrugged. "I've had too many bad experiences with groups." Gabriel looked away at this, likely in guilt. "Hey, Quentin, come on, you need friends." Amy spoke, and I shook my head. "I'm better off on my own." A sigh from Brock emitted from besides me.

"Look, Quentin, if you really want to be alone, that's fine, but please stay with us" I raised a brow at this. "What do you mean by that?" Brock shrugged. "I mean, you're wanted by them, so we could protect each other, hell, we don't even have to talk, but if you're caught by them, you'll be killed."

I took a deep breath, as I saw what Brock meant and the logic behind it. Plus, I've been tired of being alone for so long, and maybe they'd survive.

"Alright, I'll stay-"

At that exact moment, I call Amy duck down and gesture for us to do the same. As soon as we ducked down, I decided to ask Amy what was wrong, and she told me to be quiet, then gestured in front of her. Staring ahead, I felt my heart nearly stop when I saw Thomas standing in a clearing alongside Frank, Lionel and Andrew, but my fear was replaced with curiosity once I saw Jonathan standing there as well.

"Jonathan, how's your finger holding up?" Thomas asked. "It's fine, I don't feel ill." Jonathan replied. "Maybe the amputation worked." Thomas raised a brow. "You do realize you're essentially handicapped." Lionel then spoke up. "I'm betting that the infection is spreading slowly!" Andrew noticeably flinched when Lionel spoke up, likely because Lionel was nearly shouting right next to him.

"Lionel, will you shut the fuck up, we're in the woods and you'll bring lurkers to us with all that shouting." Andrew hissed. Lionel simply glared at him in response, and Frank spoke up. "You do realize we're going to kill Quentin in the morning, and Thomas wants to be the one to do it."

Why am I not surprised by that?

Jonathan sighed loudly at this, causing Thomas to raise a brow. "What?" Thomas asked. "I thought you'd want some justice." Jonathan shook his head. "He saved my life, he doesn't deserve death!" Thomas shook his head. "He also cut open Frank's arm without being provoked, he insulted me numerous times, and went against Frank's orders to leave!" Thomas yelled.

"From what I heard, Andrew, Lionel and Frank decided to raid his campsite and take him hostage!" Frank shoved Jonathan. "Are you calling us liars?!" Frank yelled, and that caused Andrew to look around for lurkers.

"You're damn right I am!" Jonathan yelled. "In fact, I'm tired of you treating us all like dirt!" Frank shoved Jonathan again. "Shut the fuck up!" Thomas yelled, and grabbed Jonathan's shoulder. "Frank nearly left me and Gabriel for dead, and you're fucking defending him?!" Thomas, Frank and Lionel glared at him, and Lionel stomped over.

"Now listen here-" Jonathan shoved Lionel back, causing Lionel to fall on his back, which really drove home how short and scrawny Lionel was. "You lot only care about yourselves, and no one else." Jonathan proceeded to walk past the others. "I'm fucking leaving, I'm taking Trinity and Jey and leaving!"

Thomas was fuming, and just as Jonathan turned his back to him, Thomas took out a pistol and shot Jonathan in the back of the head.

* * *

**OUR FIRST PRESENT DAY DEATH JUST OCCURRED IN THE FORM OF JONATHAN OH SHIT FAM!**

NOW STAT ME BARACK OBAMA!

Alive = Bold Unknown = Reg Text _Dead =_ _Italic Undead = Italic Bold_

**QUENTIN'S GROUP - Quentin, Garrett**

**HALEY'S GROUP - Haley, Lex, Gage, Paige, Kirby,** _Eric, Ben_

**ROCK HILL - Lionel, Frank, Andrew, Thomas, Daniel, David, Matthew, Brian, Jane, Jessica, Cassie, Thaddeus, Charles, Taylor, Joseph, Amy, Claudio, Jeffrey, Gabriel, Brock, Ariya, Fergal, Catherine, Trinity, Jey, Jon, Randal, Amanda, Noam, Leah, Sesugh, Colby,** _Jonathan_


	8. The Train Station

_**QUENTIN'S POV:**_

_**-Two hours after escaping the Walmart-**_

We just barely made it out of there. After I had no choice but to shoot Eric, there was a brief pause before the others realized what happened, and it was Haley that broke the shocked silence. "What the fuck?!" Haley yelled, and I remember looking back at Lex who was in shock. "We need to go, now!" I yelled, and I grabbed Garrett's arm and dashed to the truck, the others following soon after.

Thankfully, we were able to get in the truck right before the other members saw us pulling off, and as Haley was driving, we didn't feel any bullets collide with the truck. As soon as we made it a good distance, it was then that we decided to stop and rest. It was also where Haley proceeded to round on me.

"Quinn, what the fuck was that?!" Haley yelled. I looked back at the kids, and gestured to Garrett, who took the kids to a different area in the clearing we decided to rest in. "Haley, he was going to shoot us!" I yelled back. "You couldn't have just shot him in the leg?" Haley asked. "Now if those guys find us, we're dead!"

"They won't find us, plus they'll probably give up soon." I spoke, and Haley just shook her head. "Quinn, we stole their truck, their supplies, and killed one of their people, knowing my luck, they'll want revenge." I sighed. "The leader didn't care about the damn community, only about that one group that left a while back."

"Yeah, and now he's got another group to obsess over." Haley then sighed back and walked off to the truck to get supplies from the back. I then took this opportunity to speak with the others, and I started off with Garrett, who was comforting the kids. "Hey Garrett." Garrett sighed in response. "Quinn, we need to talk." Garrett and I walked over to a small cluster of trees nearby, and I couldn't help but look at Garrett's new appearance. His previously short red hair had now grown massively, his hair now looking much more wavy puffed up. Additionally, his clean face now housed a thin amount of stubble, making him look somewhat older than he actually was.

"Quinn, about Eric…" Garrett began with a rather conflicted look on his face. "...I understand why you did it, but…" I raised a brow. "...I love you Quinn, I don't want you to lose yourself…" I proceeded to wrap my arms around Garrett, who returned it instantly. "I won't lose myself, as long as I have you." Garrett nodded into my shoulder.

"Hey, um, Quinn, I have an idea on how we can get them off our backs." I heard Kirby speak up. I walked over to Kirby who was holding a duffel bag full of clothes and a hose of some kind. "What is it?" I asked.

"Well, I was thinking that considering that those guys will recognize us by the truck, why not make it so we died on there?" Kirby replied. "My idea is that we take some gas out of the truck, puncture a hole in the tank, and get some lurkers to place inside the truck with our clothes, then we light the truck up."

"Wait, what about the kids?" I asked. Kirby shrugged. "We don't need lurkers for them, just me, you, Garrett, Haley and Lex." I looked back at the others, then at the road.

"Let's go find some lurkers."

_**-Present day-**_

Jonathan was dead. Jonathan was just shot in the back of the head like a dog because he called out the others for what he thought was wrong. Knowing my luck, when Thomas gets back and finds me missing, he'll likely tell Trinity that I killed him, and Lionel, Frank and Andrew would back him up, all sticking with their own twisted versions of the story.

I watched as Thomas crouched down and took something off of Jonathan, and I recognized it as Jonathan's wedding ring. "Heh, not a bad ring." Thomas then took a thin rope out his pocket and tied it around the ring, and essentially made himself a damn necklace. I looked over at a fuming Brock, whose fists were clenched tight.

"We need to go." Amy whispered, and Gabriel grabbed onto Brock's shoulder, to which he sighed and stood up, as did I. "That son of a bitch." Brock muttered. "He just...god fucking dammit." Amy wrapped an arm around Brock while Gabriel solemnly looked at the ground.

Minutes later however, our spirits perked up once the familiar sight of railroad tracks came into view, and I knew we were close. "We're almost there, it should be this way." I spoke. Interestingly enough, it appeared that the tracks went uphill. Odd, but okay.

Eventually, I noticed a small building near the tracks, and I recognized it as the train station itself. "We made it!" Gabriel exclaimed, and the four of us dashed over to the station, but once we got there, we stopped dead in our tracks. The train station, while in somewhat decent shape, was surrounded by large, wooden spikes with lurkers impaled on them, all of them snarling at the sight of us. To the left of the station was an old train attached to an overturned boxcar, and nearby were a number of rusty minecarts.

"What the hell is this?" Brock asked. "I never remembered this being here before." I replied, and Brock sighed. Gabriel then spoke up. "Hey, it'll work as an alarm, come on, lets-"

Just as Gabriel stepped forward, a loud snap was heard, followed by Gabriel falling to the ground screaming. "Gabriel!" Amy yelled as Gabriel screamed in pain. Brock stared in shock at Gabriel, and knelt down and parted some grass, only to see a large bear trap attached to Gabriel's ankle. "Fuck, it's a bear trap!" Brock yelled, and tried prying at it with his hands, which caused Gabriel to yell louder.

"Fuck, that's gonna attract lurkers!" Amy yelled. "Quentin, do you have anything on you?!" Brock yelled, and I shook my head. "Fuck, find something, we need to get him out!" Brock kept prying at the trap, causing Gabriel to yell more. "Brock, stop prying, you'll end up getting his leg torn off!" I yelled. This caused Brock to stop, and I began searching for an object to help Gabriel.

"Quentin, catch!" I turned to see Amy tossing me a spanner wrench, which I caught. "Hurry!" Running over to Gabriel, I stuck my foot on the bottom of the trap's jaws and placed the wrench over my foot. "Alright, Brock, get ready to pull him out!" I yelled, and Brock held up Gabriel's arms. I then began pulling on the wrench while pressing down on the trap with my feet, causing the trap to slowly open. "Pull him out!" Brock quickly pulled Gabriel out of the trap, and I got my foot out of the trap.

That's when I heard the familiar sound of lurkers groaning and snarling, and from the volume, they were close. "Brock, get Gabriel up, Quentin, help me get the door open!" Amy yelled. Brock helped Gabriel to his feet and pulled Gabriel's arm over his shoulder while I ran to Amy. "Ram the door!" Amy yelled, and the two of us began to kick the door. Eventually, with one final kick, the door swung open and the four of us piled inside and shut the door.

Then the sound of a gun being cocked sounded behind us, and a low voice spoke.

"Don't turn around."

* * *

**Oof.**

**NOW STAT ME ROBBIE ROTTEN!**

Alive = Bold Unknown = Reg Text _Dead =_ _Italic Undead = Italic Bold_

**QUENTIN'S GROUP - Quentin, Garrett**

**HALEY'S GROUP - Haley, Lex, Gage, Paige, Kirby,** _Eric, Ben_

**ROCK HILL - Lionel, Frank, Andrew, Thomas, Daniel, David, Matthew, Brian, Jane, Jessica, Cassie, Thaddeus, Charles, Taylor, Joseph, Amy, Claudio, Jeffrey, Gabriel, Brock, Ariya, Fergal, Catherine, Trinity, Jey, Jon, Randal, Amanda, Noam, Leah, Sesugh, Colby,** _Jonathan_


	9. Trapped

_**QUENTIN'S POV:**_

_**-Weeks later after leaving the Walmart-**_

Weeks passed ever since we escaped from the Walmart, since I shot Eric dead, since we hopefully fooled the people at the Walmart into thinking we crashed the truck and we perished. Unfortunately, while that part was a massive success, we ran into a new problem.

We were low on food.

We really didn't expect to run through food within a week, but then again, there were seven people here, including me and the kids. This forced us to begin hunting, and unfortunately, since none of us knew how to cook, we ended up having meat that was way too burnt. This obviously was taking a toll on everyone, Lex and Haley especially. Haley became more aggressive and hot-headed, as everytime she ended up failing to catch a rabbit or something, she would loudly yell out profanities. Lex was somewhat the same, except that he was like this twenty-four seven.

Currently, we were sitting around a campfire we were able to set up, and we were biting and tearing at the rubbery rabbit meat we had. Honestly, it felt like I was chewing a tire. I looked across from me and watched as Garrett watched the kids eat his food. After Eric and Ben, Garrett became sort of a father figure to them, and Garrett usually placed the kids over himself.

"Garrett, have some of mine." I said as I handed him the meat, but Garrett shook his head. "You need it more." Garrett replied, causing me to sigh. "Garrett, you've eaten the least out of all of us, and while you may be losing weight, it's not going to last."

"Quinn, I'm fine." Garrett grunted. "Hey, Quinn, I'll have that rabbit." Lex spoke up, and I glared at him in return, causing Lex to look away. Garrett proceeded to stand up and stretch. "I'll look for some food then, I'll be back." Garrett proceeded to grab a knife and walk off into the woods.

"Quinn, eat, please." Haley spoke. I took a bite of the rubber meat and tore at it the best I could, but to no avail. I eventually ended up using my knife to cut the meat, which helped a bit, but not much. "Quinn, how long do you think we've been out here?" I heard Haley ask, and I just shrugged. "I'm not sure, feels like ages."

A few minutes later, Garrett appeared in the bushes with a fearful look on his face, and three people followed behind him. One was a man with semi-long brown hair and a thin beard, and wore a camo jacket. Next to him was a woman who looked a year or two older than him, with long, wavy brown hair and a black jacket. The final person was another woman, with long blonde hair and pale skin, and wore a green jacket and cap. Additionally, she was holding a rifle to Garrett's back, which caused me to spring to my feet.

"What the fuck?!" I yelled as I grabbed a rifle I had and aimed at the woman holding Garrett hostage. Haley and Kirby shot up as well while the kids hid behind Haley. "Put the gun down, and we won't kill him." The blonde woman spoke.

"You put yours down first, and we'll comply." Kirby replied, and took a step towards the group. "Kirby, don't." Haley said, causing Kirby to stop. It was then that Lex had decided to get involved, and looked at the group surprised, but more specifically at the male. The male gave Lex the same surprised look, and to my surprise, the man and Lex ran over to each other and hugged.

"Lower your guns, they're cool!" Lex said to us, and we reluctantly did so while Garrett ran over to me and hugged me tightly, which I returned. Honestly, I didn't care about the fact that apparently Lex and the guy knew each other, but I just cared about Garrett. Haley however was the one to ask the question I didn't care about.

"You know this guy Lex?" Haley asked, and he nodded.

"He's my older brother."

_**-Present Day-**_

The four of us slowly raised our hands in the air as the gun-wielding voice began to make slow sounding movements towards us. The voice in general sounded male, and possibly could have something going on with his throat, maybe he's thirsty or smoked cigarettes.

"Lower your guns, slowly, on the ground." The man spoke. "You already caused enough noise with all your damn screaming." The man grabbed my shoulder. "You, got any guns?"

"Nope." A long sigh emitted from the man before I felt him pat me down, checking me for weapons. "Keep looking ahead and I won't shoot." The man spoke as he moved onto Brock, and found a gun on him, which he took from him. Brock began to panic once he began patting down Amy, and he was shaking like mad.

"Don't hurt her, please." Brock spoke. "I'm not gonna do anything, calm the hell down." The man stopped patting down Amy, then moved onto Gabriel, which caused Amy to go into a massive panic as she looked over to see him crouching behind Gabriel's mangled leg.

"Stay away from him!" Amy yelled, causing the man to look up. "Eyes forward." Amy quickly looked away as Gabriel seethed in pain. "Let me guess, stepped in one of my bear traps?" The man asked. "That was yours?!" Amy yelled, causing Brock to shush her. "You do realize the spikes should've told you to fuck off."

"Wait, you live here?" Gabriel asked. "Congrats, you get a gold star." The man replied, causing Amy to scowl. "Hey, look, we're sorry we caused all these lurkers to show up." Brock spoke. "Just please don't kill us." A long silence followed after, before the man spoke up again.

"Alright, turn around."

When the four of us turned around, it was then we got to see the man's face. He looked to be around his mid 30's, with long, blonde hair that reached to his shoulders. He also wore a blue hoodie and green jeans. He also held an assault rifle in front of us.

"So, now that we know each others faces, you're gonna have to help me get these lurkers away." Brock then spoke up. "You just held a gun to our backs, why should we help you?!" The man chuckled. "Are you forgetting the fact that you basically broke into my home with a bunch of lurkers on your trail after ignoring common sense and leaving this place alone?" Brock then looked down at the ground, realizing what he meant.

"Also, your buddy isn't going to last in here." The man spoke again. I noticed the man pocket Brock's gun, which Gabriel noticed. "Hey, can Brock have his gun back?" The man shook his head. "I'll give it back when I'm certain he won't shoot me." The man then went over to a boarded up window and stared outside at the large amount of lurkers now surrounding the station, some stuck on the spikes.

"Hey, before we start working with each other, why don't you tell us your name?" The man turned around and rolled his shoulders before responding.

"Gary Harrison, but most call me Garrison."

* * *

**Alive = Bold** Unknown = Reg Text _Dead =_ _Italic **Undead = Italic Bold**_

**QUENTIN'S GROUP - Quentin, Garrett**

**HALEY'S GROUP - Haley, Lex, Gage, Paige, Kirby,** _Eric, Ben_

**ROCK HILL - Lionel, Frank, Andrew, Thomas, Daniel, David, Matthew, Brian, Jane, Jessica, Cassie, Thaddeus, Charles, Taylor, Joseph, Amy, Claudio, Jeffrey, Gabriel, Brock, Ariya, Fergal, Catherine, Trinity, Jey, Jon, Randal, Amanda, Noam, Leah, Sesugh, Colby,** _Jonathan_

**TRAIN STATION - Gary**


	10. Distracting the Dead

_**QUENTIN'S POV:**_

_**-Six Minutes Later-**_

"So let me get this straight, you want us to waste more supplies on these random ass people just because your brother is friends with them?"

Just as we followed the new group back to an even larger group, this is the first response to us we got, delivered by a tall, red headed man. Not willing to have my group insulted, I stepped forward, causing the man's eyebrows to raise a bit.

"We didn't even ask for supplies, so keep your mouth shut." The man scowled at my response, and walked over to me, getting in my face. "You really want to try me asshole?" Haley then proceeded to step between us. "Boys, play nice." The man backed away, but not before giving me a dirty look and I did the same. Just then a short, young man wearing a blue beanie stepped over. He had long, brown hair and a small amount of stubble. The most peculiar thing I noticed about him was his right arm, or, lack of one. Instead of his arm, it was replaced by a crowbar.

"Ok, so, I think some introductions are in order, who wants to go first?" He spoke, and no one else did. I saw a small smile come to his face before he spoke again. "Ok, I'll go first, my name is Matt, and I'm twenty-five years old." At this, Gage came out and noticed Matt's arm. "What happened to your arm?" Gage asked. "I was bitten, and my friend cut my arm off so I couldn't turn."

I couldn't help but raise a brow at this, as this was the first time I've ever heard of someone surviving a bite. To be fair, most bites I've seen usually were on the neck, shoulder, or abdomen, but I've never seen a bite on the appendages.

Paige proceeded to walk over to Matt, who crouched down to her height. "You are?" Matt asked. "Paige, and my brother is Gage." Paige replied with a smile. "We're twins!" Matt smiled at her. "Nice to meet you." Matt stood up and looked at the others.

"You see how easy that was?"

That was when the redhead from earlier stepped into view, still glaring at me. "Yeah, you were talking to a damn kid, we're adults dammit!" The man yelled, causing a young girl that looked similar to the man to shiver at the harshness and a teenager around the same age as the girl to begin comforting her.

"Okay, I have an idea." Matt spoke, and glanced at us all. "We're going to split into seperate groups in order for us to get along." Matt then began gesturing at everyone in the group, and Garrett proceeded to wrap his arms around me. "Terrance and Eli will talk with that large guy." I gave Matt an odd look once he mentioned Garrett. "Sorry for that, I don't know your name yet."

To my surprise, Garrett let out a little laugh, which was nice considering I haven't heard him laugh in a long time. Eventually, I was assigned to talk with Matt and a woman called Eve.

Time to meet some new friends.

_**-Present Day-**_

As Gary looked out the window at the herd of lurkers idling around groaning and snarling at nothing, I decided to take the opportunity to talk to the others, starting with Gabriel and Amy, the latter crouching down next to the former. "Hey, you guys alright?" I asked. "Aside from having a massive cut on both sides on my leg, I'm fine." Gabriel replied. "He's losing a lot of blood, we need to patch him up, or at least, cover it." Amy spoke up. At this, I noticed a green cloth on a table, but as I went to pick it up, I heard a gun click, and saw Gary aiming his rifle at me again. "Don't take it." I slowly stepped away from the table at this while Brock glared at him.

"That...that's special to me." Gary said. "What is that?" Gabriel asked with a smile. "Your nut rag?" In response, Gary gave him a nasty look, causing Gabriel to look away. It was then when after Gary went back to the window, I noticed him scratching his shoulder. At first, I thought he had a bite or something, but there was no blood on the jacket nor any open wounds, also, he didn't sound sick. "Hey, Gary, you alright?" I asked.

"Garrison, and yes." Garrison replied. "You sure?" I asked. "You were just…" I mimicked the scratching he did. "Old wound, nothing to worry about, though I'm surprised you were." Garrison replied. "Well, I'm just making sure you don't get the idea to shoot us in the back." A small chuckle emitted from Garrison in response. At this, I decided to check up on Brock, who was standing underneath a light and looking up at it.

"What's up?" I asked. "Skylight, that could be a way to get out." Brock then sighed. "It's too high however, and I don't see anything we can stand on." Garrison proceeded to walk over once he said this. "I got it." Garrison pointed outside. "The train, we get it started, draw the lurkers away." Brock raised a brow. "How are we going to exactly make this work?" Garrison looked up at the skylight.

"You, er…" He pointed at me. "Quentin." I replied. "Quentin, you and the girl will be boosted up to the roof." Brock stared at Garrison wide-eyed. "Hang on, what about me?" Brock spoke. "You didn't let me finish." Garrison replied, then walked over to Amy and handed her Brock's gun. "You and Quentin will be boosted up to the roof, and you'll bang the gun on one side of the roof in order to draw the lurkers towards one side while Quentin goes around them to the train." Amy nodded while Brock mumbled to himself. "Don't worry Brock, I'll be fine." Amy said, then kissed him on the cheek. "Alright Amy, please stay safe, and when you get back…" Brock paused. "I need to ask you something." Amy nodded and stepped onto Brock's and Garrison's hands, then was pushed up into the skylight. I followed soon after, and once I got up there, I felt a tap on my leg.

"Take this." Garrison said, and handed me a flashlight. "It'll be dark in the front, so I recommend you bring light." I took the flashlight from him just as I heard Amy begin tapping the butt of the gun against the left side of the roof. "Go." Amy whispered, and I slowly made my way to the right of the roof and slid off the roof, luckily landing on my feet. I then began crouching and making my way over to the front of the train, and thankfully, I made it there easily. Once I got onto the train, I got into the front and turned on the flashlight.

The train itself was very, very dirty, and the controls were covered in rust and there were numerous cobwebs inside. It was then that I realized I had no idea on how to operate a train. I briefly thought about yelling, but my eye gazed over to a book on the seat.

A book about Morse Code, perfect.

I opened the book and began to look for words that would help me, and thankfully, I managed to find the words I needed. Walking over to a nearby broken window, I began shining the flashlight rapidly, hoping the mimic the words. After about thirty seconds, I noticed Garrison climb onto the roof and move next to Amy.

"Check under the seat!" Garrison yelled, causing the lurkers to get riled up, but not by much. Sure enough, when I checked under the seat, a manual was there, albeit it being rather dusty, causing me to hack and wheeze once I picked it up and a thick cloud was blasted into my face. First up, I engaged a knife switch, and I looked back hoping that the lurkers didn't notice. Amy seemed to noticed what was happening, as she began banging on the roof harder. I then went outside and began to flip the switches required, and after about ten or so minutes of making sense of the manual, it finally looked like the train was ready. I opened the door on the other side of the train, which was away from the lurkers, and got ready to flip the final switch then quickly jump out.

Unfortunately, once I flipped the switch, the train moved forward, but it suddenly stopped, throwing me against the train. I wasn't worried about the sudden jolt, but instead, how loud the jolt was. I then noticed the lurkers had stopped paying attention to Amy and were slowly shambling towards me.

"Quentin, the boxcar, it's still stuck to the train!" Garrison yelled. As the lurkers began banging on the train, Amy jumped down from the roof and ran over to the bear trap, then tossed me the spanner wrench from earlier. "Hurry!" Amy yelled. I leapt out of the train and ran to the boxcar, and quickly stuck the wrench underneath the spanner. Thankfully, due to the jolt, the rust had separated, making it able for me to lift the pilot pin with the wrench. Climbing up the ladder, I quickly pulled the lever and felt the train begin to move, and I quickly jumped off.

Much to my relief, the lurkers began following the train, leaving me alone. As soon as the lurkers were far enough away, Garrison ran out, with Brock following behind holding Gabriel up on his shoulder. "Nice work." Garrison said, and grabbed my hand and pulled me up.

"Quentin, that was smart, using the morse code and shit, thank fuck Garrison knew morse." Brock spoke. He then looked over at Amy, then at me. "Let me see hold him, good luck." Brock nodded and handed over Gabriel, and walked over to Amy, who stared at him in curiosity.

"Amy, I-" A sudden squawk sounded out from the radio Brock had, and he quickly answered it.

"Come in Thomas, are you there?" I heard a panicked deep male voice shout, and Brock turned to Amy. "That's Miroslav!" Amy's eyes widened. "What's going on?!" Amy yelled. Brock focused back to the radio. "Miroslav, what happened?!" I heard Thomas's voice emit.

"Some train just rammed the wall, we've been breached!"

* * *

**Alive = Bold** Unknown = Reg Text _Dead =_ _Italic **Undead = Italic Bold**_

**QUENTIN'S GROUP - Quentin, Garrett**

**HALEY'S GROUP - Haley, Lex, Gage, Paige, Kirby,** _Eric, Ben_

**ROCK HILL - Lionel, Frank, Andrew, Thomas, Daniel, David, Matthew, Brian, Jane, Jessica, Cassie, Thaddeus, Charles, Taylor, Joseph, Amy, Claudio, Jeffrey, Gabriel, Brock, Ariya, Fergal, Catherine, Trinity, Jey, Jon, Randal, Amanda, Noam, Leah, Sesugh, Colby, Miroslav,** _Jonathan_

**TRAIN STATION - Gary**


	11. Reluctance

_**QUENTIN'S POV:**_

_**-Two Minutes Later-**_

Following Matt inside the fishing emporium, he led me over to a table near some fishing poles, where a heavily pregnant Asian woman was sitting. I sat with Matt at the table across from him as he sat next to the woman. Matt was about to speak, but I cut him off.

"Okay Matthew, I'm Quentin, and your friend is?" Matt paused before he spoke. "Matthew isn't my real name." Matt responded, causing me to raise a brow. "Then what is it?" I asked, and Matt looked away at this. "...Matthias." Odd reaction to saying his name, but okay. "Your friend?" I asked.

"My wife, her name is Eve." I cocked my head at this. "Marriage huh, kinda pointless if you ask me." Matt glared at me, and I raised my hands. "Not to say marriage isn't nice, just saying marriage during this chickenshit bullshit is kinda pointless." It was then that I noticed the redhead hesitating to speak with someone.

"That's Heath." Matt spoke. "He's a fucking assclown." I responded, staring at Heath. "I only requested you be away from him so you don't kill each other." Matt said, and I nodded in response, then decided to bring up Eve's pregnancy. "Pregnant huh?" I asked. "Congrats." Matt smiled in response, as well as Eve.

I looked around the room, and I realized something. All these people here, and potentially one of them could be dangerous, and could use mine and Garrett's relationship against me. I turned to Matt. "Can I talk to you alone?" Matt nodded and kissed Eve on the lips before following me over to a secluded area.

"What is it?" Matt asked. "First off, you seem like you got a head on your shoulders, which is great, because it's been awhile since I've seen one." Matt smiled a bit at this, but I continued. "Now, I want to know if you or anyone are against gay people."

"You're gay?" Matt asked. "Yeah, I am, don't like it fuck off." Matt looked away. "Sorry, but to answer your question, no, I don't have anything against them." I still kept my stare at him. "How about everyone else, they good?" Matt shrugged. "I don't know, it's a touchy subject." I sighed at this. "Listen, anyone says anything about me and Garrett, I'll shove a stick up their ass." I said. "Especially that Heath guy."

Minutes later, some members came back with a new guy who had a lot of food, and for the first time in years, we all ate as if it were a feast. Everyone was telling stories, laughing, having a good time, and it felt as if we were living before the apocalypse. That was until Heath came in, grinning like a madman.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Tyler Horvath has gone to rescue my little sister because he's a fucking moron!"

_**-Present Day-**_

Brock's face showed shock and horror, same with Amy's, and pocketed the radio. Garrison scoffed. "They're fucked, whatever." Amy glared at Garrison. "Quentin, we have to help them." I felt my eyes widen at Amy's words.

"Are you fucking serious?!" I yelled. "If I go back, they'll kill me!" Amy shook her head. "Look, I get you hate that place, but there's still good people there." Amy replied, then looked at Gabriel. "Plus, that's the only place that has an actual surgeon, she can help him." I took a deep breath, seeing what she meant."

"Fine, but if I die, my blood is on your hands." It was then that we heard the familiar sounds of lurkers coming behind us, and when I turned, I saw the largest herd of lurkers I've ever seen. Hundreds of them, all drawn by the train, and heading right towards us.

"We need to hurry!" Brock yelled, and I started to run until Gabriel let out a yelp of pain. "Shit, Gabriel!" Amy yelled. Garrison looked back and sighed. "Dammit, we need to leave him!" Amy gave Garrison a fierce glare. "He's my fucking brother you asshole!" Amy yelled.

"Over here, we can use the mine-carts!" Brock yelled as he was trying to push a large mine-cart onto the tracks. "Great job!" I yelled, and ran over to Brock and tried helping him get the cart on, but due to me being weak from all the running and walking, I tired out quickly. That was until Garrison came over and helped put the cart on the tracks.

"Fuck, they're here!" Brock yelled out, and sure enough the herd was on our heels. I looked over at Amy, who was now carrying Gabriel. "Amy, you get yourselves and Gabriel in the cart, shoot any that get too close!" I yelled. "Garrison, Brock, you guys push the cart, let me know when we're ready to roll!"

"What about you Quentin?" Brock asked. "I'll defend you!" I heard a chuckle from Garrison. "You'll need this then." Garrison thrust his rifle into my hands. "Sixty rounds, make them count." Brock and Garrison then began pushing while Gabriel was pulled into the cart by Amy. Turning around, I saw a lurker getting close, and, aiming the rifle, I aimed and fired at its head, causing blood to spew out of its head and the lurker in general to slump down dead.

I did this more and more, and at one point, a lurker came from the side and nearly bit me, but a shot from Amy took care of that problem until I used about forty-two bullets. Backing up more, I felt a tug on my hoodie, and I turned to see Garrison lifting Brock into the mine-cart then climbing in himself.

"Push, I'll hold them off you!" Garrison yelled as I gave him the rifle. Garrison began firing at the herd, hitting many lurkers with pinpoint accuracy. Once the cart was close to the edge of the hill, Garrison grabbed my arm and pulled me into the cart, and I leaned back as the cart accelerated down the hill. "Hang on!" Garrison yelled, and I held onto the sides of the cart. "Fuck, we're almost down, brace for a jolt!" Garrison once again yelled. Despite this, I wasn't prepared for the jolt, and I winced as I whacked the back of my head on the cart.

Thankfully, the cart began to slow down after a while, and I looked ahead to see the familiar walls come into view. The only difference was the large amount of lurkers surrounding the walls, and even more were pouring into the walls, attacking residents who attempted to fight them off. I knew that lurkers were dangerous, but aside from that herd, I've never seen this many before.

However, there was one thing that was more dangerous than lurkers, and unfortunately, like the lurkers, that thing followed the noise right to Rock Hill.

* * *

**Alive = Bold** Unknown = Reg Text _Dead =_ _Italic **Undead = Italic Bold**_

**QUENTIN'S GROUP - Quentin, Garrett**

**HALEY'S GROUP - Haley, Lex, Gage, Paige, Kirby,** _Eric, Ben_

**ROCK HILL - Lionel, Frank, Andrew, Thomas, Daniel, David, Matthew, Brian, Jane, Jessica, Cassie, Thaddeus, Charles, Taylor, Joseph, Amy, Claudio, Jeffrey, Gabriel, Brock, Ariya, Fergal, Catherine, Trinity, Jey, Jon, Randal, Amanda, Noam, Leah, Sesugh, Colby, Miroslav,** _Jonathan_

**TRAIN STATION - Gary**

**MATT'S GROUP - Matthias, Eve, Heath, Tyler, Jenny, Sal, Kaitlyn, Cody, **Beth


	12. Return to Rock Hill

_**-QUENTIN'S POV-**_

_**-One hour later-**_

Before we followed the group in order to get the girl, Beth back, we ended up having a discussion on where to send the kids in order to keep them out of harm's way, and after a good amount of debating, it was decided that the kids would go with this teenager called Zack to hide out in the woods. I do remember that Gage and Paige didn't take this decision well, considering how close they were to Haley. However, Haley reassured them that she would be back, and they went along with this. I even remembered what she said to them.

"I'll be back, don't worry."

Sadly, those were the last words I remembered Haley saying as seconds after we arrived where we believed Beth was, Haley received a bullet to the head. As we scrambled to cover, I noticed the bandit that Matt and Heath captured run to the others, and it was then that I realized that we were essentially led into a trap.

"Quinn, we need to get out of here!" I heard Garrett yell next to me as we crouched behind the car we came in. Looking up, I saw Kirby peek out of his hiding spot behind a tree and fire his pistol at the attackers, but a shot from a man with greying hair struck Kirby in the neck, causing him to crumple to the ground. It was then that I noticed Matt rapidly firing at some of the attackers and allowing some of others to get out. Matt then looked over at me and nodded. "Quinn, Garrett!" Matt yelled. "I'll lay down some fire, you guys run!" Once Matt began firing, I grabbed Garrett by the hand and began running.

Right when we were about to reach the treeline however, I felt a massive weight nearly pull me down. Turning around, I thought that Garrett was tackled or hit or something along those lines, and I desperately hoped it was just tackled.

My hopes were dashed when I saw Garrett laying on the ground with a bullet in the head.

_**-PRESENT DAY-**_

"Come on, we'll get in the same way!" Brock yelled as he led the five of us over to the same ladder we used to get out. I also noticed that Garrison was still with us, but currently, that was the least of my concerns. I was the last one to climb the ladder, and once I got on top of the wall, I took in the carnage going on below.

Lurkers were pouring in by the dozen, almost as if for every one lurker killed, about six more would enter. Turning my head, I watched as an older man was taken down to the ground and bitten into while a large man with long hair and a beard was pulled to the ground by lurkers. "We need to do something!" Gabriel yelled. "Gabriel, you stay up here, you're too hurt to fight!" Amy yelled. "Amy, you stay with him, make sure he stops bleeding!" Brock spoke, then turned to me and Garrison. "Help me out guys." The two of us nodded and followed Brock down another ladder, dropping us right into the fray.

Screams emitted from all around us as residents desperately attempted to fend off the lurkers, the majority of them ending in either them running away in fear or them being devoured. "We need to get that breach sealed!" Brock yelled. Right as he said that, a loud scream sounded from behind us, and I noticed Trinity and Jey on a dumpster attempting to beat some lurkers to death with the butts of their rifles.

"I got them." Garrison said, and, with near-perfect accuracy, shot all but one of the lurkers surrounding Trinity and Jey. "Help me out!" Jey yelled as the last lurker grabbed onto his leg and attempted to pull him off the dumpster. I dashed towards the lurker holding onto Jey and swung the spanner wrench I had at it, which collided with its head and and caused the lurker to slump down dead. Jey and Trinity, as soon as they caught their breath, just simply looked at me in surprise.

"You're welcome." Garrison, Brock and I ran off again, saving more townspeople along the way and getting them inside. Despite this, not all of the residents were able to be saved, such as a man with pale skin and red hair and the middle-aged dark man I recognized from earlier who was talking with another resident. "We need to seal the breach somehow!" Brock yelled. "The train!" Garrison yelled. "Drive the train back, we can use it to lead the lurkers away!"

"What about the breach?!" Brock yelled back. "Train won't fit, best we can do is lead them away!" Brock sighed and nodded. "Where's the train?" Garrison shrugged, but I quickly noticed the nearby railroad tracks, and saw the train nearby that had collided into the other side of the wall, but hadn't broke through. "Hope this still works!"

Quickly, I got into the train and pulled the lever that would send it backwards, and to my relief, the train slowly moved backwards. I then leapt off the train and watched as the train moved backwards. Meanwhile, Brock and Garrison were still getting people inside, although still not everyone made it, as I noticed a tan woman be bitten on the neck before being taken down.

Two minutes later, the train successfully led the remaining lurkers back out of the hole, leading to the rest of the residents slowly emerging from their shelters. Honestly, I'm surprised there hasn't been more deaths, as I'm certain that considering the large amount of people here, there would be more people killed.

"You…" I turned around to see Thomas with a handgun staring at me with a furious look, Andrew, Lionel and Thomas at his side. "You...fucking...did this…" Thomas then looked over at Brock. "You fucking helped him escape...you're a goddamn traitor!" Thomas yelled. "Andrew, Lionel, Frank, kill them, and the siblings." As the three raised their guns, I decided to blurt out what could save my own life.

"You're going to kill us like you did to Jonathan?!" I yelled, causing Thomas to raise a brow, but I saw the fear in his eyes. "What the hell are you talking about?" Thomas asked. "You shot Jonathan." Trinity then spoke up.

"Thomas said you shot him!" Trinity yelled. "Thomas shot him after Jonathan stood up to him and his damn cronies!" Brock yelled, causing Thomas to laugh. "What could you possibly use against me to prove your point?" Thomas asked. "How about your new necklace?" Thomas's eyes widened at this, and he clutched the necklace that was hidden in his shirt. "You took his wedding ring!" I yelled.

"No I didn't!" Thomas yelled. "Really, then would you have no problem showing the necklace?" Thomas shook his head. "I don't have to show you shit!" Thomas yelled again. "If that's the case, why doesn't one of your buddies who were there speak up?" Amy yelled, carrying Gabriel. A long pause followed before Andrew sighed.

"Stand down." Andrew spoke, causing Thomas, Lionel and Frank to look at him incredulously. "What the fuck Andrew?!" Thomas yelled. "It's true." Andrew sighed, then aimed at Lionel while Garrison aimed at Frank. Brock then took this opportunity to not only grab Lionel's gun, but also punch him in the jaw. Frank then finally stood down, and Andrew dropped his gun and got on his knees, and Frank and Lionel were forced on their knees.

That just left Thomas, who was beginning to panic. "I didn't kill him!" Thomas yelled again, and that's when Jey grabbed Thomas from behind while Amy set Gabriel down and ripped open Thomas's shirt, revealing his necklace, causing Trinity to gasp in disbelief.

"What the fuck?!" Trinity yelled, and her face quickly turned to anger. "What the fuck Thomas?!" Thomas scowled. "He was bitten, he was going to die anyways!" Thomas yelled again. "It didn't matter if he was bitten, he was going to turn regardless!"

"I knew a man who was amputated because he was bitten, and he survived the fucking bite!" I yelled back. "That's a story, anyone else bitten at one point who can prove that they survived a bite?!" Thomas looked around, and that's when Garrison spoke up and removed a glove on his right hand, which was missing his ring finger, and Thomas went pale at this, and slowly began backing away.

"You're just going to turn on me like this?!" Thomas yelled. "Just because I did what I had to do?!" Thomas finally sighed, and to my surprise, he began sobbing. "I...I'm…" Thomas began. "I was…"

Thomas was suddenly cut off when a knife appeared from out of nowhere and slashed Thomas's throat, causing a number of gasps to ripple throughout the group of residents who had gathered. Thomas was then slowly set down as a man with short hair emerged from behind Thomas with a number of other people, grinning madly.

"You're welcome." The man said, and turned to two males. "Ronnie, Kenta, take him." The two men proceeded to grab Thomas by the arms and drag him away while the man in front grinned. "Who...are you…" Brock spoke, his voice wavering.

"...you can call me what everyone else calls me...the emperor."

* * *

_Next time...on the Hell that Runs..._

_How are we going to deal with those guys?_

_We need someone to lead._

_You two are going to do what I say, and no one will get hurt._

_You're gonna need help if you want to beat these guys._

_Oh my god...it's you..._

_THE HELL THAT RUNS EPISODE 2: BEST LAID __PLANS_


	13. EPISODE 2: BEST LAID PLANS

_**-Quentin's POV-**_

_**-Two Weeks Later-**_

"So, how are we going to deal with those guys?"

That was one of the first comments I got on that fateful night where, after the herd was led away, Thomas attempted to kill me and turn everyone against me. In response, he was discovered to have murdered Jonathan and eventually, he got his throat slit by the Emperor.

Two weeks later, I still haven't found out how to deal with them, mainly because I didn't know how many of them there were. Gabriel, Brock, Amy, all of other residents kept asking me what to do, and I kept giving the same response.

"I don't know."

In addition to the looming threat of those guys, due to Thomas's death, Rock Hill fell into chaos. People kept yelling at each other, stealing stuff, threatening each other, it was absolute madness. As much as I hated Thomas, at least he kept the town civilized.

There needs to be a leader.

The first two I asked to lead were Brock and Gabriel, both of whom declined due to Gabriel recovering from his wound and Brock worried over making the wrong decision and getting many people killed. Amy I asked next, and my conversation with her was perhaps the most intriguing. I even remember how it went.

"Hey, Amy, are you interested in leading?" I asked. Amy sighed and sat down on a recliner chair. We were currently sitting in her and Gabriel's home, and Gabriel was out getting his check up on the wound while Brock was on guard duty, leaving Amy alone.

"Quentin, I'm already stressed enough with Gabriel, Thomas, Seth, the herd, and while the idea of leading sounds good…" Amy paused. "...it's too much, so I have to decline." I shook my head and made for the door, but Amy spoke up.

"Quentin, wait." Amy said, and I turned around and looked at her confused. "Quentin, can I…" Amy once again paused. "Can I trim your beard and fix up your hair?" I raised a brow. "Why?" I asked. "That look, it's…" Amy sighed. "It keeps reminding me of that day, where the wall was breached and Thomas died, and maybe, if you look a bit different, it won't bother me as much." Amy said. "Plus, I'm imagining that look is really annoying to feel."

Yeah, that last part was a really good point.

"Sure, got any scissors?"

A few minutes later, Amy set up a chair in the living room and got some scissors and a razor, then started with my beard. Knowing this was going to take a long time, I decided to start up a conversation. However, Amy beat me to it, almost like she knew what I was going to say.

"So, what'd you do before the outbreak?" Amy asked. "Boxer." I replied, and Amy gave me a confused look. "You don't look like a boxer." I stared back at her. "It's been six years since this began, I think I get a pass." Amy smirked at my response, as well as my effort to move my jaw as little as possible in order to avoid Amy messing up and nicking my lip. "How about you, Gabriel and Brock?" I asked. "Let me guess, hair stylist?"

Amy shook her head. "I was actually a sales associate at Victoria's Secret." I smiled. "I can see that." I replied, and Amy sighed. "I remember I got the job in November, right before Black Friday, and I'll be honest, I've never fought harder for my life than on that day." I chuckled. "Black Friday is madness."

"Understatement of the century." Amy replied. "What about Gabriel?" I asked, and noticed Amy's grin widen. "Gabriel, believe it or not, got a masters degree in law." I raised my brow again, surprised at this. "Really?" I asked. Amy nodded. "I'll be honest, Gabriel isn't the smartest guy ever, you saw first hand when he ran into the bear trap." I noticed that Amy's smile somewhat faded once she mentioned the bear trap. "But, when it comes to stuff he's passionate about, he's like a walking wikipedia." Amy sighed again, and looked up as she seemed to be reminiscing about the past. "I remember when I showed him Lord of the Rings, and it took him less than a week to learn the entire lore."

"Why'd he go into law?" I asked. "He may have been a little dim, but if there's something he definitely is, it's just." Amy replied. "He wanted to impose laws that would protect people of different religions, races, sexualities, he wanted to make the world a better place." I smiled, especially when Amy mentioned the sexuality part, then I noticed Amy's smile fade. "Unfortunately, he couldn't find work, and just became a vendor at an amusement park." Noticing the conversation shifting to a rather depressing tone, I decided to switch it.

"What about Brock?" I asked. "Oh, he worked as a mechanic." Amy smiled, and finally, she finished shaving my beard and began combing my hair. "Sorry about the pain." Amy spoke as she roughly pulled the comb through my hair, causing me to grunt and wince at the feeling of stuck knots being pulled apart. "How long have you went without washing your damn hair?!" I gave her a look. "Sorry that it's so difficult to find shampoo out there!" Amy looked away in embarrassment, and finally finished combing my hair, then took out a hair tie and began tying my hair. Once she was done, she held a mirror in front of my face.

"What do you think?" Amy asked. Instead of a thick, itchy beard on my face, it was instead replaced by a thin stubble. Meanwhile, my hair was pulled back into a sort of combination of long hair with a bun. I couldn't help but smile at my new look, and Amy noticed it.

"I take it you like it?" Amy asked. "Yeah, great job." Amy put the comb and razor away while I got off the chair. "Look, I'll be honest, I think you should ask other people to lead, or better yet, ask for ideas on what to do with those guys." Amy said. "But who should I ask?" Amy shrugged. "I'd say start with ideas from everyone about what to do." Amy began rubbing her chin for a brief moment before her eyes widened.

"I do remember a year ago there was this group that came through looking for trade, and Thomas turned them away." Amy spoke. "I'm not sure how'd they feel about an alliance, but maybe you can convince them somehow." I raised a brow. "Yeah, where can I find them?" Amy sighed. "There's only one person that knows where they are, and…" Amy paused. "I don't think he's willing to talk about leadership, but maybe he can help."

"Who is it?" I asked, and Amy paused before she whispered something in my ear.

Looks like it was time to have a talk with Andrew.


	14. Painful Memories

_**-Quentin's POV-**_

Before I went to talk with Andrew, I decided to check on Garrison mainly due to something I've noticed recently when he finally decided to stay at Rock Hill. Usually, Garrison was pretty happy whenever he was assigned to guard duty, as , in his words, it gave him some peace. Understandable, considering how cautious he was when we first met him, and was probably used to living alone. However, there was something that confused me a bit.

There's been a few times where despite Garrison being assigned to guard duty, he refused to come out of his home. In fact, he never even responded to anyone attempting to get his attention. At first, I thought he was sick, but the next day, Garrison was better, then by tomorrow, he'd be "sick" again. Then I began to think he was slacking off, but then I noticed a pattern that gave me a good idea on why this was happening.

The first day this happened was when he was supposed to be on guard duty with Jey, but he didn't show. The next time he didn't show was when he was meant to be with Sesugh. The third and most recent time was Trinity, and after I realized the pattern, I had an idea on why Garrison was doing this.

Regardless, I had to talk to him to make sure.

Climbing up a ladder on the wall, I was lucky enough to see Garrison on guard duty with Fergal. "Garrison, can we talk?" I asked, and Garrison gave me an odd look before looking back at Fergal and gesturing at him to move away, which he did. Once Fergal was out of earshot, I decided to ask Garrison my question.

"Garrison, why is it that you intentionally avoid Trinity, Sesugh and Jey?" I asked. Garrison huffed in response. "It's none of your business." I shook my head. "Garrison, you do realize that you can't avoid them forever." Garrison glared at me. "I'm not interacting with those spooks."

Fucking called it.

"Really?" I asked, trying not to lose my temper. "End of the world and you're still racist?" Garrison sighed. "You don't fucking know what happened." Garrison said. "Yeah?" I asked. "Enlighten me, tell me why-"

"You really want to fucking know?!" Garrison yelled. "Well, let me tell you."

_**-Garrison's POV-**_

_**-Five Years Ago-**_

"Hey, Garrison, there's some guy here." I heard a voice speak. Groaning and sitting up, all while rubbing my aching shoulder, I noticed Harley kneeling beside me, his dark brown hair flowing freely as the light from outside the tent reflected against his hair, making it appear lighter than usual.

"What does he want?" I asked, and Harley shrugged, then helped me up to my feet. As soon as I was led out of the tent, I noticed a dark male teenager sitting on a stump with a machete in hand, smiling warmly at us. "Hello there." The teen spoke, and I noticed the teen seemed to be around Harley's age. "...hey." I said, rubbing my shoulder. "So, I don't mean to be creepy, but I've been watching you for a while, and I noticed one of you are hurt." I nodded at this, despite the fact that this guy was watching us.

"I'm Dylan, who are you guys?" The teen asked. "I'm Harley, this is Garrison." Harley replied. "So, here's the thing, I'm willing to help you guys out, we have a doctor." Dylan spoke. "You just need to do something for us." Dylan waved his hand to follow us, and so we did. Once we arrived, Dylan took us over to a slightly older dark man. "Hey, Ennis, this is Garrison and Harley, they need some help." The older man nodded. "Alright little bro, but later, we got some fresh ones." Ennis then looked at me and grinned. "Follow us and we'll get you stitched up."

Ennis proceeded to lead us to a small group of other dark men standing in a circle, all while a faint whimpering sound was lead. Making my way into the circle, I noticed a young woman in the nude whimpering as tears fell from her eyes. I also noticed numerous strands of white on her, and it didn't take long to realize what exactly was going on.

"What the fuck…" Harley mumbled. The woman looked up at us with pleading eyes, as if begging for help. "Lonnie, Keaton, you guys finished with her?" Two dark men nodded in response to Ennis's question. "Who hasn't gone?" Ennis asked. Immediately, three hands went up, which Ennis noticed. "Alright, Emmett, Jaden, Marlon, you guys wait your turn, we got new meat." Ennis pushed me towards the girl.

"Are you fucking serious?!" I yelled. "Yes, if you want your shoulder fixed, you gotta contribute." Ennis replied. "How the hell is raping her contributing in any way?!" Looking back at the girl, I was instantly reminded of the teenage boy and girl that was taken hostage during my stay in Penelope's group. Fucking psycho.

"If you don't rape her…" Ennis grabbed Harley and aimed a pistol at his head. "He bites the bullet." Ennis smiled once he noticed my fearful expression, and I looked at the girl. "I'm so sorry." I muttered as I unbuckled my pants.

After a horrifying ten minutes, I stood up and looked over at Ennis, still holding Harley, who was holding back tears. "I fucking did it, now let us go." Ennis smiled in response. "Alright." Ennis proceeded to shove Harley forward, then shoot him in the back of the head.

_**-Present Day-**_

_**-Quentin's POV-**_

"Shit man...I didn't realize." I said a few seconds after Garrison finished. That made a good amount of sense, killing his friend, raping a girl, it all made sense. Garrison huffed in response. "Yeah, now you get it?" Garrison asked. "They took away the life of a fucking kid, they're fucking monsters...all of them." Noticing Garrison's more angry demeanor, I decided to leave him be.

Walking down to the prison, I felt a sense of nostalgia wash over me, although this wasn't exactly good nostalgia. Walking past the cells, I noticed Lionel and Frank laying on the ground snoring. I couldn't help but chuckle at this, mainly because last night, they were screaming their heads off. Once I got to Andrew's cell, I noticed him sitting down, his hair no longer in a ponytail and now was an absolute mess. As I pulled up a nearby stool, Andrew looked up, his bloodshot and tired eyes staring into mine.

"Thankfully they shut up." I said as I sat down, and Andrew nodded. "It's like they tired themselves out from screaming." Andrew replied with a slight chuckle, then sighed. "I can't stop thinking about him."

"Who, Jonathan?" I asked. "Aye, I remember seeing his face seconds before his death." Andrew said. "When he felt that bullet...his expression, it just showed horror." I scooted closer to hear him better. "His eyes, they just look like someone blew a candle out." Andrew continued, and paused for a brief moment. "...and the fact that Thomas had the fucking gall to steal his ring and lie about it, makes me happy he's dead." Andrew sighed again. "How's Trinity?"

"She's going through the process of grief." I replied. "I hope she recovers." Andrew replied. "You really do care about her." Andrew gave a light chuckle in response. "I'll be honest, I've had feelings for her for a while, but I never acted on them, despite Thomas telling me to do so." Andrew spoke. "If there's one thing that Thomas did right by me, it's reassuring me that it was alright."

"He's still a dick." Andrew nodded. "Yeah, but he wasn't always one." Andrew proceeded to roll his shoulders before continuing. "I've never acted on them because…" Andrew dug into his hoodie pocket and took out a picture and handed it to me, which showed a picture of a much younger Andrew, likely in his late twenties. He was standing next to a young woman with blonde hair who looked to be around the same age and a young child.

"Your family?" I asked. "Tiffany, and my son Alden." Andrew replied, then smiled. "She was...amazing, special to me…and we had a beautiful son." Andrew suddenly frowned. "Then I had to get greedy and have sex with another woman, and ruin the best relationship I've ever had." It was then I noticed Andrew's voice begin to break. "On the day it started, I went to her house, hoping to get her and Alden out, keep them safe…"

"They were dead?" I asked. "Those undead freak broke in and devoured Tiffany, and bit Alden." Andrew replied. "When Alden turned...I had to snap his neck…" Tears began streaming from his face. "I had to snap my six year-old son's neck..." Andrew put the photo back in his pocket, and for the first time, I actually felt sorry for one of Thomas's cronies. Granted he didn't care for Thomas much, it was sad and oddly soothing to see Andrew like this. Maybe it was the fact that it's the first time I've seen one of the people who demeaned me for months in such a vulnerable position, but regardless, I still had questions to ask.

"Andrew, Amy told me about some groups you met at one point." Andrew nodded and rubbed his face. "Yeah, you're going to need help if you want to beat these guys." Andrew said. "Yeah, got any ideas?" I asked. "Yeah, but the only problem is that us and the other communities aren't exactly on the best terms right now." Andrew replied. "You can thank Thomas for that."

Of course.

"The first community is currently stationed at a college, it's led by a guy called Johnny." Andrew began. "He's a good man at heart, but he's a bit stubborn, so he'll be difficult to convince, especially considering Thomas refused trade with them." Andrew then began to describe the next group. "The other group is at an airport, a group of english tourists are staying there." Andrew said. "We're going to be looking for a guy called Peter."

"Gotcha, anything to know about him?" I asked. "Not really, I don't know him well." It was time to ask my final question, but Andrew seemed to almost read my mind. "You want to know who should lead, huh?" Andrew, and while I was a bit surprised at the guess, I slowly nodded. "I'm not going to lead." Andrew spoke. "Why not?" I asked. "You seem the most reasonable of the cronies." Andrew sighed. "If I wanted to lead, I'd want to lead it through respect, not fear." Andrew replied. "Unfortunately, with me being one of Thomas's cronies and Jonathan, it's too late." Andrew paused for a brief moment before speaking up again.

"I think you should start getting ready for the trips." Andrew said. "Good idea, I'll take Gabriel, Amy, Brock, Gary, Daria, Amanda and Colby with me." I replied, and Andrew smiled. "Not a bad choice, especially with Colby, he's a great shot."

As I walked away from Andrew's cell, I began to wonder how exactly I could convince those groups that we meant no harm.

Before that however, there was one major obstacle, and that was the lack of a leader.


	15. The Roadblock

_**-Quentin's POV-**_

_**-The Next Day-**_

The next day, I decided to start out with the school, mainly due to the familiarity they have with Rock Hill and the possibility for a clean slate. As I decided last night, I decided to take Daria, Amanda, Gabriel, Brock, Colby and Gary, and when it was time to head out, we quickly had a problem.

There were only two cars and one car couldn't fit us all. However, it was decided we take both cars and head out, with Amanda and Daria carpooling with me while Gabriel, Colby, Gary and Brock got in the other. As we were driving behind Brock, Amanda began to talk with me.

"So, Quentin." Amanda spoke with a sultry voice as she sat in the passenger's seat. I already had an idea of where this was going, but I decided to humor her while Daria gave a rather amused grin from the back. "Yes?" I asked. "Nice cut, who did it?" Amanda asked. "Amy, why do you ask?" I mentally groaned when Amanda unzipped her jacket and crossed her arms, pushing her breasts up in an overly suggestive way.

"It looks nice on you." I just kept my eyes on the road at this, then decided to call up the others to see how they were doing. "Hey, Brock, you there?" I asked on a radio similar to the one Brock had the night we escaped. "Yeah, what's up?" Brock replied. "Just checking in." A brief, but audible chuckle was what I got in return, followed by Brock speaking once again. "We're not bad, Colby's just trying to get Gabriel to stop scratching his leg while Gary's snoring away." I couldn't help but snort as after Brock said that, a loud snore emitted from the other end, causing Daria to look over at me in curiosity and then amusement once she saw my face.

"Well, you better wear some earmuffs then." I replied. "Hang on, there's some people on the road, stop for a minute." Brock said, and I stopped the car and stepped out, where in front of us, Brock, Colby and Gary were aiming at a group of three men. The first man was dark, with short black hair and a small beard, and I quickly noticed that Gary had his rifle trained on him specifically. As he was in front of the other two, I assumed him to be the leader. The second man had somewhat tan skin and had short, black hair, but not as short as the dark man's, and had a thin amount of facial hair. The final man was definitely the oldest of the three, with balding grey hair and thin eyebrows.

"Hey, we mean no harm!" The dark man spoke as he held his hands up. "Look, no guns!" The tan man said, and did a full rotation to prove it. "Don't come closer." Gary replied, and trained his gun further on the dark man. "You with anyone?" Gary asked. "No, we're not, why do you ask?" The dark man said, and Gary huffed.

"I doubt it." Gary began to put his finger on the trigger until Brock quickly grabbed his gun and yanked it away. "What the fuck?!" Gary exclaimed. "Sorry about that, we're all a little paranoid." Brock spoke, then gave Gary a nasty look. "Right?" Gary sighed and nodded in response. The three finally put their hands down, with the old guy breathing a sigh of relief in the process.

"We've been on the road for months now, and we'd like to join the group if you have one." The dark man said. I looked over at Brock, who was nodding his head, and well, I couldn't help it. Not because of Brock, but considering Andrew said we needed allies, it wouldn't hurt to have some more people on our side. That, and maybe because the dark man was rather handsome.

"Who are you guys?" Colby asked. "Shawn, this is Rajeev and Hubert." Shawn pointed at the tan man and the old man in order of names said, and the tan man, Rajeev, walked over cautiously. "So, uh, do we need to have any skills to stay?" Colby shrugged in response. "We're not sure yet, we don't exactly have a leader, so when we get back we'll see." Shawn smiled at this, but Hubert looked rather worried.

"How can we be sure you're not bandits?!" Hubert exclaimed. "We promise we're not bandits, okay?" Gabriel responded, and Hubert just shook his head. "Alright, I'll trust you for now." Colby gestured at the car and the three others got inside. "Hey, I'm going to take Daria and Amanda further, see you guys back at home." I said, and the others proceeded to drive away, leaving me, Daria and Amanda to get back in the other car in the same spots. Me driving, Amanda in the passenger's seat, and Daria in the back.

"Quentin…" Amanda spoke in the same sultry voice as before. "Yeah?" I asked. "Why don't we…" Amanda began to push herself against my right arm, and not wanting to crash, I started driving with only my left arm. "...have some private time?" I sighed in annoyance at this. "Amanda, I don't swing that way." Amanda's face went red and scooted back. "Sorry." Amanda meekly spoke, then looked back at Daria, who was giving her a rather empathetic look.

"I need to use the bathroom." Amanda suddenly spoke, causing me to jump a little, but I kept control and stopped the car. "Alright, Daria, you need to go as well?" Daria shook her head. "I'll come with you, make sure nothing sneaks up on you." As Amanda stepped out of the car, I grabbed my handgun and turned to Daria. "Stay with the car, if anyone comes by who looks shady, take the car and go, I got a radio and you can explain what happened on the way." Daria nodded and I followed Amanda into the woods.

"Amanda, do you really have to go or are you just wanting to have sex with me?" I asked abruptly, causing Amanda to stop and, despite the fact I couldn't see her face, I knew she was blushing. "Because it's not going to work." Amanda gave a small nod, and suddenly, a lurker jumped out from in front of Amanda, and she was barely able to get her hands up to prevent the lurker from biting her as she screamed.

"Shit!" I yelled as I ran towards the lurker and ripped it off Amanda and slammed it against a tree, then stomped on its head. Looking back at Amanda, I expected her to be looking at me, but instead, she was looking at something else in horror. Slowly turning around, I found myself face to face with the barrel of a gun.

My own gun.

"Back away." The person holding the gun said. The person was wearing a ski mask and extremely baggy clothing, making it difficult to determine what exactly this person had. However, judging from the deep voice the person spoke with, it was likely a male. "You, get up." The man said pointing at Amanda, and Amanda stood, shivering with fear.

"You two together?" The man asked. "We have others." Amanda replied, and the man shook his head. "As in, are you two fucking?" The man trained the gun on me. "Are you?"

"No, we're not." I responded. "Well, you are now." The man pressed the gun against my temple. "You two are going to give me a show." I glared at the man in response, while I felt my belt being undone by Amanda. "Quentin, I don't want to die, we have to." I sighed, realizing there was no way out and no other way. "Fine." Under the mask, I could tell the man was grinning, and about twelve minutes of the man telling us how he wanted it to go, I got off Amanda and noticed that the man was gone, and, rather oddly, left my gun. Looking down at Amanda, who was slowly dressing herself. "You alright Amanda?" I asked as I helped her to her feet. "Yeah, thank you, for going along with it." Amanda looked away briefly, then wrapped her arms around me. "It's been difficult, after Jonathan and Thomas, I needed just…" Amanda sighed. "Even if it's a one time thing, I'm grateful you came with me."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked confused. "...I'm not sure how to put this, mainly because I've been more successful with romance with my appearance than words, but…" Amanda paused. "...I needed to talk with someone I liked, as in, have a crush on." Amanda then stood on her toes and kissed my cheek. "Sorry, I'm just…" Amanda said. "...thank you." All I did in response was nod and walk back to the car with Amanda, where Daria was sitting in the car with the windows up.

"Daria, didn't you hear the screaming?" I asked as soon as I got in the car, causing Daria to look over at me in curiosity. "What?" Daria asked. "Amanda got attacked by a lurker." Daria's eyes widened and looked over at Amanda. "She's fine, but we got caught by a bandit and forced to…" I sighed. "Give him a show." Daria looked away at this, and I turned to Amanda, who was looking away as well.

"We should head back, too much has happened."

Upon returning home, I felt an overwhelming feeling of fatigue set in, and I just wanted to fall asleep. Before I went to rest however, I walked over to a blonde woman by the name of Ashley and told her to let Andrew out in the morning, as I wanted to talk to him about the communities. As I laid down, I couldn't stop thinking about the events that occured today. Garrison's admission, Andrew's idea, meeting Shawn, Rajeev and Hubert, being forced to have sex with Amanda. So much happened.

Yet we still needed a leader.


	16. Revenge

_**-Quentin's POV-**_

_**-The Next Day-**_

The next day, still trying to recover from yesterday, I decided to go and talk with Jane and Judy. Jane was the surgeon that Amy mentioned who helped Gabriel recover from his wound, and Judy was Jane's girlfriend. It's been too long since I've met someone that can understand me, so of course, Judy and Jane became two of my closest friends besides Gabriel, Brock and Amy. Additionally, since all three of us were interested in the other gender, it was easy to trust each other.

It was a sunny day today, so of course, a large amount of people stayed inside, and when people were assigned to guard duty, it was for thirty minutes as opposed to the standard hour, and were given ample amounts of water bottles. To make matters worse, for the majority of the women, it was that time of the month, so of course, we had a lot less people on guard duty, and usually the men were panicking as they took care of their girlfriends or wives. It also explained why when I woke up the next morning, Amy and Brock weren't around and Gabriel was out of the house. Additionally, it explained why male residents like Fergal, Charles, Jey, Miroslav, and Buddy weren't around often, as they were taking care of the women in their lives, albeit looking like they've seen a ghost.

Jane, Judy and I were sitting at a table with an umbrella, which thankfully shielded us from the heat, and were talking about recent events that happened, the stuff with the women in particular.

"So, see Miroslav lately?" Jane asked. "Oh yeah, I've never seen Miroslav run that fast just to get some apples." Judy replied, chuckling a bit. Unlike a number of the other women, Judy and Jane already had their time and were fine. "Quentin, you should've seen him, he was running like he's seen a ghost." I remembered Miroslav, and I've seen him a few times before, and that, in addition to Miroslav being larger than most intrigued me very much. "Geez, if he's running that fast, then his wife must be scary." Jane laughed at my response.

"Trust me, his wife is a really nice lady, but turns out, on her period, she's a nightmare." Jane said. "I do like that the guys are really trying, even if some aren't married." I nodded at this, and I did remember that Gabriel said that he gave Brock advice on how to deal with Amy, as he tended to be the most subject to her madness. "Noam's really helping with Leah." I said. "Yeah, it's no common knowledge that Noam likes Leah." Judy replied.

"Yeah, and I think he's too much of a wuss."

I looked up at the deep voice that sounded behind Judy and I was surprised to see Frank standing there, a smug look on his face. "What the hell are you doing here?!" I asked. "Quiet you queer." Frank responded with an angry look in his eyes, then turned his attention back to Jane and Judy. "So, you two ever had fun with dark meat before?"

"Leave us alone Frank." Jane replied, but Frank didn't budge. "Come on you two, why don't you have fun on the Frank train." Frank attempted to put his hand on Jane, but she scooted away from him. "There's enough meat for both of you." I laughed at this.

"Bullshit, I'm certain that Judy's got a bigger dick." Judy and Jane proceeded to burst out laughing while Frank glared daggers at me. "You want to fight me?" Frank stomped over to me. "Huh?" I stood up in response, causing Frank to shove me. "That's a yes then?" Frank asked. "Depends, want your arm cut open again?" Almost on reflex, Frank clutched his arm, where I noticed a thin scar running across his forearm. Frank huffed and walked away, and Judy and Jane walked in the opposite direction.

"Hey, Quentin." I heard a voice say from behind. I turned around to see Garrison standing behind me, a rather conflicted look on his face. "Hey Garrison, what's up?" Garrison gestured for me to sit down at the table, and once we sat down, Garrison began to speak. "Before I begin with what I'm going to tell you, I heard about Amanda, you alright?" Garrison asked. Odd, considering Garrison never exactly was shown to care about anyone other than himself.

"Yeah, I'm good." I replied. Garrison then took a deep breath, then looked around cautiously. "What I said yesterday, about the guard thing..." Garrison paused. "...I haven't told you everything."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked. Garrison let out a sigh and removed his glove, showing his missing finger. "I think you should know what happened after."

_**-GARRISON'S POV-**_

_**-Forty minutes after Harley's death-**_

They were going to suffer. All of them were in the worst possible way. Not only did they rape an innocent woman and force me to do so in order to save Harley, but after I was done, they just shot him. They just shot a sixteen year old boy like he was nothing. To me, Harley was not just a boy, or a companion.

In a way, he was the closest thing I've had to a younger sibling, one that I wanted to protect with my life. He was essentially family.

And they just snuffed him out without a care in the world.

After returning to camp alone, I sat there on the same stump that Dylan sat on when we first met him, and I remembered that machete he was toying with. God, I wish I could stab him in the fucking throat with that machete, make him suffer, just like I was going to do with all of those fucks.

Minutes later after plotting my revenge, I grabbed a hammer and a knife and marched my way back to the camp. Once I arrived, I hid in a bush and watched those monsters interact as if nothing happened. They were fucked, all of them.

"Night Marlon." One of the black men said to another, and I watched as a black man with shaggy hair and a white and black bandana went off to a cot and laid down. Once it looked like the other man was gone, I snuck over to Marlon and, once I reached him, I raised the hammer in my hand and smashed it into Marlon's temple. His eyes shot open in horror, as if he realized what happened, and his mouth moved almost like he was trying to say something, but nothing came out.

Once I was sure he was dead, I moved onto the next victim, and I recognized him as Lonnie, who was sitting facing towards the edge of a small hill, staring into the dark. I then snuck behind him, unsheathing my knife and, before he could even react, I stabbed the knife right into his throat, and I saw his eyes widen with horror just like Marlon's. Taking the knife out, I proceeded to kick him down the hill, and watched him tumble down into the darkness.

"Hey, Lonnie, you here?" I heard a voice call out. I quickly leapt into cover and watched as Keaton walked over to the chair and began to inspect it. "Lonnie, you-"

I knew that eventually Keaton was going to see the blood, and I couldn't risk it. I turned him around and stabbed him in the eye, which took him down instantly.

Four left.

"Jaden, it's your turn to keep watch." I heard Ennis speak, causing me to feel an instant surge of anger, but it quickly turned back to determination once I remembered Keaton laying on the ground. Before Jaden could find Keaton, I picked up Keaton by the shoulders and pushed him down the hill. Unfortunately, Jaden did in fact notice me. However, before Jaden could alert the others, I ran at him and stabbed him right in the chest, taking him down instantly.

It was then that I noticed Emmett and Ennis at a campfire, talking about the girl. Crouching down, I found a handgun on Jaden and decided to take it. I didn't just want to kill Ennis, I wanted to fight him head-on. Turning the corner, I aimed the gun and shot Emmett in the back of the head.

"What the fuck?!" Ennis yelled, then looked up and saw me. "You…" Ennis growled. "You fucking killed Harley, this is justice." I replied. Ennis, to my surprise, smiled. "I didn't kill them, you did." Ennis put his hands on his hips while I just stared at him, feeling the uncomfortable feeling of confusion and anger mix inside me.

"What the fuck are you talking about?!" I yelled. "Do you know why we survived?" Ennis asked. "It was because we let go, we just did as we were told." I raised a brow, and Ennis continued. "We weren't forced, we did it to survive, you just did it to save someone."

"You fucking lunatic!" I yelled. "I helped you survive by taking away the dead weight you had, and this is how you repay me?!" Ennis yelled. "Killing my people, and now planning to kill me?!" Ennis stepped over and got in my face while I slowly grabbed a nearby machete, hoping to catch Ennis off-guard. However, the exact opposite happened.

"You got your friend killed because you didn't let go of your morals." Ennis then took out a knife and swung at me, causing me to raise my left arm in an attempt to block it. I felt a searing pain on my ring finger, but I kicked Ennis back. I raised my hand and noticed my ring finger dangling by a small piece of skin.

Ennis looked up at me, surprised at what he had done, and that's when I saw nothing but red. All I remembered at this point was grabbing the machete and hacking at him furiously, and when I finished, he looked like what would happen if someone put a watermelon in a shredder. I then heard a gun click behind me, and I saw Dylan aiming at me, tears in his eyes as he stared at the corpse of his brother.

"You…" Dylan choked out, and lowered the gun. "Ennis…" Dylan began sobbing uncontrollably and I just wanted to comfort him, hold him, tell him it was alright, that he was in a better place, all of that. Dylan was just a kid, just like Harley, and maybe, I could've taken him along, maybe that girl as well if I could find her. That's what I would do.

Would've.

Instead, I took the opportunity to stomp over to Dylan and swing the machete at him, slashing his throat open. I did what Ennis said.

I let go of my morals.

_**-Quentin's POV-**_

Two hours after the talk with Garrison, I decided to go and talk with Ashley on why Frank was out, but instead, I decided to talk with Jane and Judy again. They were pleasant people, and they trusted me with a lot despite how new I was to Rock Hill. As night fell, I briefly decided to check in on Brock and Gabriel, who were simply having a conversation of some random subject.

"Hey." I said. "Hey Quentin, we were just talking about movies." Gabriel replied. "Oh, which ones?" I asked. "I was trying to explain to Gabriel why Hush was a great movie." Brock spoke up. "How is it genius?" Gabriel asked. "It's just a cat-and-mouse with a masked guy and a girl, the only difference being the girl is deaf!"

"That's what makes the movie great, it's much more tense and to make things even better, the woman is no pushover!" Gabriel shook his head at Brock's proclamation. "Ellen Ripley, Laurie Strode, Sidney Prescott, all of those are even less of a pushover!" Brock looked over at me. "Come on Quentin, you've had to at least seen Hush!"

"I've never seen Hush." I simply replied, causing Gabriel to smirk and Brock to sigh loudly before letting out a small yell, gaining the attention of a few bystanders. "Quentin, if we find a projector, I'm going to show you Hush, and I don't care if I have to duct tape you down and put a cloth in your mouth, you're going to watch it." Brock said.

"Good luck trying to get a former boxer to watch a movie against his will." Gabriel chuckled while Brock looked away embarrassed. It was then that a shout of pain emitted from some nearby tents. "Come on!" I yelled, and the three of us ran over to see what the commotion was. Once arriving to the source, I watched as Frank was stomping over to Jane, a furious look in his eyes.

"Frank, what the fuck are you doing?!" I heard Trinity yell, and it was then that I noticed numerous residents come over to see the commotion. "You're going to disrespect me like that, huh?!" Frank yelled as Judy ran over to get Jane away from Frank. "You're going to deny me my rights you stupid bitch?!" As Frank said this, I noticed Ashley in the crowd, and I knew I had to have a chat with her, considering I didn't ask for Frank to be let out. Then I realized that if Frank was let out, then also…

"You got Thomas killed!" I heard Lionel shout from behind, and I felt a shove. "You think you have the right to barge in here, bring people in, and act as if you're a leader?!" Lionel yelled. "Well fuck that!" Frank grabbed me by my jacket and threw me across the ground, and it was then that I realized how weak I was from lack of food. It also didn't help that Frank was very strong, as he was able to chuck me with ease.

"You don't deserve these people's respect, it's all your fault that this is going on!" Lionel yelled. At this, there were a few confused murmurs within the crowd. "What does he mean?" I heard a tan woman, Victoria ask. "He was the one who brought the train, and caused the wall to be breached!" Frank responded. "Oliver, Damian, Sarona, Dustin, Thaddeus, all of them died in that breach!"

"You're lucky we decided to come back, otherwise, you'd all be fucked!" I yelled. "Oh, and to top it all off, now we're being harassed by some nutjobs because you couldn't just accept your fate!" Lionel yelled back. "You were going to execute me because I saved Jonathan's life!"

"Yeah, and look what happened!" Frank exclaimed, kicking me in the gut. I saw Brock go over to me to help, but Lionel took out a handgun and aimed at him. "No one interfere, this is justice." As Lionel said that, I noticed Andrew walk through the crowd and walk over to Frank and Lionel.

"Andrew, you may have got us all locked up, but maybe, maybe it's not too late." Lionel handed Andrew his handgun while Frank lifted me to my feet. "Shoot him, avenge Thomas." Lionel said. In response, Andrew raised the gun without any hint of hesitation and aimed at me. "Andrew, listen to me." I said. "Thomas was a fucking liar, he killed Jonathan, remember!" Andrew's face however still didn't show any sort of emotion.

"Andrew." Frank said. "You do this, we'll let you be what you want, you'll gain respect the way respect is really earned, and hell, you want to be a gardener?" I felt my heart sink once Frank mentioned that, and I had a feeling that Andrew was going to give him. "Just shoot him."

A long pause followed as everyone watched with bated breath, wondering what Andrew was going to do. Frank seemed to have lost his patience, and growled at Andrew. 'Fucking shoot him dammit!"

Andrew lowered his gun in response. "We can't fight like this, not when we're at war!" Andrew yelled. "Honestly, we need a leader!" Frank scoffed. "Andrew, you do realize that if Thomas died, there'd be no new leader." Lionel chuckled as well. "Besides, we all know that I'm going to lead if we're going to have a new leader." Lionel spoke. "Unless there are any objections-"

"I'm going against you." I spoke up, fed up with listening to him. This caused Lionel to shake his head and laugh. "Really?" Lionel asked in an amused tone. "Why would these people vote for someone who caused the deaths of many residents here?!"

"Because he actually knows what he's doing!" Gabriel yelled out. "Shut up, you're not a part of this!" Lionel replied. "Besides Quentin…" Lionel looked over at Andrew, who was aiming once again. "...you're already dead." Frank smiled once he saw Andrew aiming at me, waiting for that gun to fire and end my life.

However, when Andrew was just about to pull the trigger, he moved his hand to my right and shot Frank in the head.


	17. Leader

_**-Quentin's POV-**_

As Frank's head violently shot back, a loud chorus of gasps of horror sounded out. Frank then collided with the ground, a neat bullet hole underneath his left eyelid. "What the fuck?!" Lionel yelled. "Why'd you…" Andrew shook his head and just simply walked off. "Andrew, you motherfucker!" Andrew still didn't stop, leading to Lionel sighing and walking off as well, leaving the crowd standing around the corpse of Frank.

I wasn't even thinking about Frank or Andrew at all, but instead, I was thinking about the whole leadership thing. All this time I was asking Gabriel, Brock and Amy about becoming the leader, yet I never even considered myself to be a leader at all.

Well, only one way to find out.

_**-Four Weeks Later-**_

Four weeks later after Frank's death and subsequent voting process, I found myself trying to collect some last minute votes, and I was talking to a married couple by the names of Buddy and Alexis. Currently, I was inside sitting across from them on a couch, and thankfully, the women's time had come to an end, so everything was rather normal.

"So, Quentin, I'll be honest, Alexis and I are voting for you, without a doubt." Buddy spoke. "Really?" I asked. "Yeah, you seem honest and smart, and anyone being the leader is better than Lionel." I gave Buddy a small smile, and that's when a knock on the door made it's presence known. Walking over to the door and opening it, I saw Brock standing there with a smile on his face.

"Hey, I came to get you, we're about to count up the votes." Bidding farewell to Buddy and Alexis as they went on ahead, I decided to talk to Brock while walking. "So, Brock, what're you hoping?" I asked. "I'm really hoping you win." Brock replied. "I mean, I already couldn't stand Lionel when he was just a regular guard, but him as leader?" Brock shivered. "Fuck that."

"Damn right, I'd rather not have to deal with him." I replied. "Yeah, and knowing him, the first thing he'll do is execute you and Andrew." It was then that I found myself very interested by Andrew's status, as ever since Frank's death, he's been not around a lot.

"How's Andrew?" I asked. "I'm not sure." Brock replied. "He's tough to read, and half the time I don't even know what he's thinking." Brock proceeded to crack his knuckles before continuing. "You ever see those statues that don't show any emotion at all?" I raised a brow. "You mean, every statue ever?" I asked, causing Brock to shake his head. "Okay, first off, not all statues are emotionless, there's the Motherland Calls for one-"

"Brock, just tell me." Brock looked away briefly, then composed himself. "Andrew's like one of those statues, I can't tell what he's thinking." I shrugged, and suddenly Brock gave me a grin. "I bet he'd be good at poker." I smiled back. "Maybe." As the sounds of numerous voices came into hearing range, I bid farewell to Brock and walked to the makeshift stage (which in reality was just a truck bed, but whatever), and stood to the left side of Colby, who was reading out the votes while Lionel stood to Colby's right, giving me a nasty glare.

It was then that I noticed the amount of people who were sitting in the crowd on numerous benches that were set up. I do remember I got the number of the potential voters which, excluding Lionel (for obvious reasons), had seventy-nine people who were going to vote. Interestingly enough, that was the same amount as the overall population of Rock Hill, once again, excluding Lionel and me and including Garrison, Shawn, Hubert and Rajeev.

"Alright everyone, votes are in, and it's time to find out who will be our new leader." Colby spoke. He took out a piece of paper and placed it in a bowl in front of me, then took out another and placed it in Lionel's. This went on for several minutes, with each bowl getting fuller and fuller by the moment.

After approximately five minutes, the final paper was placed, and Colby cleared his throat. "Everyone, after counting the votes, I've come to a conclusion on who the new leader of Rock Hill will be." Colby paused. "The new leader of Rock Hill is Quentin."

Once those words were spoken, a chorus of mixed claps, cheers, and jeers emitted from the crowd, and I couldn't help but smile. It was odd, seeing how far I came when first being taken here. From prisoner set to be executed, to leader of Rock Hill. Besides me, Colby was giving me a small smile while Lionel was throwing a tantrum over his loss. Looking back at Colby, he proceeded to mouth something to me and gesture to me to follow him.

Away from the crowd, Colby led me to a white gazebo and took a deep breath. "Can we talk about what happened with Amanda?" Colby asked. "Lemme guess, you're thinking I intentionally fucked her?" I replied, causing Colby to choke a bit, likely due to the blunt response. Colby however composed himself.

"Look man, I'll be honest, I did vote for you because you seem like a decent guy and you know what you're doing, but I just need to make sure you didn't do what I think you might've done." Colby said. "Look, what happened was that while Amanda and I were out for a bathroom break, we were held at gunpoint by some guy who had a black ski mask on." Colby's eyes widened.

"Did it have a hole at the top?" Colby asked. Once he asked that, I thought back to what happened on that day, and I realized that yeah, there was a hole on the top. "Yeah, why do you ask?" Colby shifted uncomfortably in response, and pulled out a familiar mask from behind his back.

"The day before we left, Daria asked to borrow it."


	18. Confrontation

_**-Quentin's POV-**_

_**-Two Minutes Later-**_

I was furious. No, scratch that, I was pissed. Seriously pissed. Not only at the fact that I was forced to have sex with a woman that I didn't even like romantically, and, for weeks, thought I had traumatized her, but also due to the fact that not only was I lied to, but also was made to feel guilty over the incident.

All this time, and it was intentional.

Despite this, I couldn't exactly lose my mind, mainly because I just became leader, and I couldn't just walk up to Amanda and began yelling at her and Daria. Once arriving at Daria's room at an apartment building however, I heard voices from behind the door. I pressed my ear to the door, attempting to listen into the conversation.

"I don't know how long I can keep this up." I heard Ashley say. "Ashley, look, everything is going to work out." Daria spoke, and I felt myself twinge with anger as she spoke. "Daria, he's the leader, he'll find out."

You're goddamn right I will.

"Amanda, why'd you have to suggest this?" Ashley asked. "I couldn't help it, I've liked him for a while now." Amanda replied. "Amanda, first of all, you got over Jonathan pretty quickly-" Ashley said, causing Amanda to cut her off. "I never liked Jonathan in that way."

"Amanda, you obsessed over him despite him being married." Ashley replied. "Anyways, you got over him pretty quickly, second, you'll basically screw anything that is a human." I heard a brief snicker from Daria, and from the volume of it, it sounded like she was very close to the door, causing me to back away. I nearly jumped when I felt someone behind me, and turned around to see Brock, Jeffrey and Noam standing behind me. "Hey, Quentin, you alright?" Brock asked.

"Yeah, what're you doing here?" I asked. "We're heading up to chill out, watch some old tapes, that sorta thing." Jeffrey replied. "Alright, well, have fun." I replied. While Noam and Jeffrey went upstairs, Brock stayed behind however, staring at me curiously. "Yeah?" I asked. "Why're you outside Amanda's room?" Brock asked.

"Colby found the mask that guy used that day me and Amanda were forced to...you know." I replied. "I've been listening in, and it sounds like Amanda, Daria and Ashley were in on some plan." Brock's eyes widened. "Shit, really?!" Brock almost yelled, but I clamped a hand over his mouth. "I want to just talk, okay?" Brock nodded and I looked up at the stairs, wondering if Jeffrey and Noam were listening.

"Hey, go watch your tapes, I'll be fine." Brock shook his head. "It's three against one, and they may not look like much, but trust me, they're no pushovers." I couldn't help but smile at Brock's loyalty, and with that, I opened the door, causing the three women in the room to stop and stare at me and Brock in surprise.

"Hey...Quentin…" Amanda meekly said. "Don't." I replied, and I turned to Daria. "Let me guess, it was you in the mask." Amanda's eyes widened in horror while Daria had a stoic expression on her face. "It was a guy, not a girl first of all." Daria said. "Yeah, then why did you have Colby's ski mask?" I asked.

"I had a cold, and I thought it would warm me up." That part was actually true, as before the trip, Daria caught a cold she quickly recovered from. But why a ski mask for a little cold? That's when Ashley spoke up.

"It was her!" Ashley said, causing Daria to glare at her in astonishment, same with Amanda. "Ashley…" Daria said in a threatening tone. "...I told her about the ski mask, and I went along with it, just because I wanted a bit of food!" I felt my fist clench in anger, and I noticed Brock step closer to me and hold his hands up, as if waiting for me to make a move.

"Ashley, shut the fuck up!" Daria yelled while Amanda watched in horror. "Amanda did it because she liked you!" Ashley yelled, and Daria proceeded to walk over to her and shove her. "Shut the fuck up!" Daria yelled again. "Daria was the one in the mask, and she helped because she owed Amanda-"

"Shut up!" Daria shoved Ashley hard, causing Ashley to fall on her back. Unfortunately, as she fell, a sick crack followed as the back of Ashley's head collided with the edge of a coffee table. Ashley's eyelids fluttered open, staring at nothing in an almost dream-like state. It would've looked peaceful had she not been murdered.

Daria, realizing what she had done, quickly pulled out a handgun and aimed it at Brock and I. "Here's what's going to happen." Daria spoke slowly, her voice wavering from fright and disbelief. "I'm going to leave, and never come back, okay?" I just glared at her.

"How fucking dare you." I replied. "You fucking knew I was not interested in Amanda, and yet you and her decide to hatch a plan to essentially rape me?!" Daria briefly looked away sheepishly, but still kept the gun aimed at Brock and I. "Let me leave, you'll never see me again…" Once Daria said this, Brock slowly began to move towards her, causing Daria to aim at him. "Daria, listen, you don't have to kill anyone else." Brock spoke in a calm voice, yet Daria still kept aiming.

"Don't come any closer Brock." Daria repled, her voice shaking. It was then that a familiar voice spoke up, startling Daria.

"What the hell is going on?" Daria, once hearing that, quickly turned and fired at Jeffrey, who was standing on the bottom step of the stairs, the shot passing through his neck and then striking Noam in the shoulder. Jeffrey fell to the ground, clutching his neck as he choked while Noam seethed in pain.

Brock then took the opportunity to tackle Daria and knock the gun out of her hands, but due to them being so close to the stairs, they both tumbled down the stairs, and a massive crunch followed. Scared, I ran over to the stairs, where I saw Brock staring in horror at Daria's still, unmoving body, blood pooling around her head. Brock began mumbling while tears dripped from his face, but right now, I was preoccupied with Amanda, who was curled up on the couch.

"Wait!" Amanda yelled as I walked over to her furiously. "Give me a reason why I shouldn't kick you out right now!" I replied. "Tell me, now!" Tears streamed from Amanda's eyes, and held her gut.

"I'm pregnant."


	19. Mistake

_**-Quentin's POV-**_

Brock's sobbing, Jeffrey's gurgling, Amanda sniffling, Noam's groaning, none of those sounds were able to distract me from what Amanda just said.

She's pregnant.

I stepped back in response to Amanda's reveal, and she looked up at me, still sobbing profusely. I honestly didn't know what to do, so in response, I just left and went to check on Brock, who was still sobbing over Daria's corpse.

"Brock, you alright?" I asked. Brock shook his head.

"That was…" Brock mumbled. "...I've never…"

"Killed before?" I asked. Brock nodded, and briefly glanced away from Daria's corpse to look at Jeffrey, who had stopped moving. "Are you hurt?" I asked. "No, I'm…" Brock sniffled. "...I'm fine." Looking up, I saw Amanda move past me, a guilty look in her eyes. I would definitely have to have a chat with her later, but right now, I was helping Brock. "Come on Brock, I got you." I helped Brock up, and as I was leaving the building, I saw Jane and Judy come over to me. Then I remembered Noam was still up there, and not only that, since Jeffrey was shot in the neck, he'd turn in a moment.

"Jane, Judy, there was an accident in there, Noam's hurt, and there's two casualties." Upon hearing this, Jane and Judy rushed inside to take care of Noam and Jeffrey. Seconds later, Amy and Gabriel rushed over at the sight of Brock. "Brock!" Gabriel yelled. "What happened?" Brock just sniffled in response.

"Daria tried to kill me, Brock saved me, but he accidentally killed Daria in the process." I replied. "He's never killed anyone before apparently." At this, Amy wrapped her arms around Brock, who collapsed into her. "It's alright Brock, it's alright." Gabriel then joined in on the hug, and Brock's sniffling slowly began to stop.

"Hey, Quentin, we need to talk." I heard a voice say. I looked up to see Trinity and Jey standing nearby, beckoning me to come over, which I did. Upon following them to the familiar gazebo where Colby had informed me of Amanda's true colors, Trinity turned to me and gave me a small smile. "First of all, congrats on becoming the new leader." Trinity said. "Also, well, I'm sorry for wanting you to die."

"It's alright." I replied. Trinity and Jey smiled at me. "Well, thank you." Jey said. "Anyways, look, since you're leader, there's been something I wanted to suggest for a long time, but Thomas blew me off when I tried to ask." Trinity spoke. "I wanted to know if there'd be a council of sorts, because here's the thing, Thomas didn't really care on who was running what, he only gave those positions to people who sucked up to him."

Why am I not surprised?

"For example, he put Frank on repairs, even though the dude doesn't even know how to use a screwdriver." Jey said with a rather annoyed tone, likely remembering that Frank was responsible for Jonathan being bitten, me amputating him, and later, being killed by Thomas. "Lionel was put on supply runs, and you know how loud he is, and Andrew was assigned to storage." Jey continued.

"What did Thomas do?" I asked. "In addition to leading, he decided to monitor food, law and trading." Trinity replied, and I couldn't help but cringe at this, especially at the law and trading part. "My recommendation is to assign people who actually know their shit."

Luckily, I already had an idea of who to choose. I bid Trinity and Jey farewell, then asked Daniel for a marker and paper, which he gave to me, then I began writing down the names I wanted to assign to the council.

_COUNCIL_

_LAW_

_Gabriel Sanders_

I mean...he had a law degree...

_REPAIR_

_Brock Nixon_

I remembered that Amy told me that Brock was a mechanic at one point, so he'd be perfect for the role.

_SUPPLY RUNS_

_Gary Harrison_

I mainly chose Garrison due to him spending more time than me outside, so he'd likely know how to survive and get in and out of places faster.

_TRADING_

_Andrew Morrissey_

I admittedly was a bit hesitant to put Andrew on trading, but considering he knew more about the communities around, it fit more for him to manage trading lines.

_STORAGE_

_Amy Sanders_

Amy was a bit of an odd choice, but there was something that I noticed while she was cutting my hair. It was the attention to detail in making sure that my hair was at least presentable. She'd be great for paying attention to everything that was there.

_FOOD_

_UP FOR DEBATE_

Honestly, I had no idea on who to put in charge of food. I mean, no one else I've met besides Andrew has taken much of an interest in food, and even more, the only ones I vaguely remembered being gardeners weren't exactly too fond of me from what I think.

It was then that a loud shot emit from the apartment building, and I quickly ran over to see an undead Jeffrey biting into the neck of Brian. Jane and Judy were standing in horror at the sight of this, and I quickly ran over to them. "What happened?!" I yelled. "I told you to take care of him!"

"Why'd he turn?!" Jane asked. I just looked at her incredulously once she answered. "He was shot in the neck!" I yelled. "The brain wasn't destroyed, that's why he turned!" Jane's eyes widened once I said this, then I looked at Jane's bloody hands that, thankfully, didn't have a bite. Unfortunately, this is when I realized what happened.

Jeffrey turned because neither Jane or Judy knew about destroying the brain.

A loud yelp emitted from behind me as I grabbed my machete out of my back holster, and I turned around to see Amy prying the undead Jeffrey off of Brian. My heart then nearly stopped once Amy swung her arm at Jeffrey, but missed, causing Jeffrey to chomp into her forearm. Amy, undeterred, pushed Jeffrey off and knocked him against a wall, then stomped on his head about three times until a crack was heard and Jeffrey stopped moving.

Amy then looked down at her bleeding arm, not even saying a word. Her face was just...vacant. Her mouth wasn't open, her eyes didn't show fear or distress or anything. It was like she didn't know how to feel about her potential death sentence.

I knew how to feel, and it was determined.

Raising the machete, I brought it down onto Amy's bitten arm, severing it. Amy just gasped and, after I stabbed Brian in the head, I heard Amy whisper a single word right before she collapsed to the ground:

"Quinn…"

* * *

_Next time, on the Hell that Runs..._

_"What the fuck did you do?!"_

_"I'll need your help if we want to convince these guys to be on our side."_

_"I'm going to need you to do me a favor before I even consider your offer."_

_"Trying to gain allies, well, that's no good."_

_"We're surrounded!"_

_"If you really think that having friends can keep you alive...you're dead wrong."_

_EPISODE 3: ALLIES AND ENEMIES_


	20. EPISODE 3: ALLIES AND ENEMIES

_**-Quentin's POV-**_

Two minutes later after Amy hit the ground, I found myself standing over her unconscious body as Jane desperately pressed rag after rag to Amy's bloody stump whilst Judy placed her hands on Amy's neck. I stepped back to give the two room to work, and moments later, Jane and Judy sighed in relief.

"We slowed down the bleeding for now." Judy said. "For now?" I asked. "We can't exactly do much with old guitar strings for stitches." I was about to let out a breath that I didn't realize I was holding, but the door suddenly swung open with Brock and Gary standing in the doorway.

"What the fuck did you do?!" Brock yelled. "Amy got bit, and I hacked off her arm." I replied, hoping Brock would understand. However, Brock's reaction was different. "What the hell man?!" Brock yelled. "I…" Brock slowly fell to his knees, softly sobbing over Amy's unconscious body. "Leave me alone, please." Just as I was about to step away, I heard Gary speak up.

"At least she won't die from the bite." This caused Brock to quickly stand up and furiously glare at Gary. "She's missing a fucking arm, you think that's exactly helping?!" Brock yelled. This was actually the first time I've seen Brock not just mad, but enraged, and man it was intense.

"Just leave me alone." Brock said. Slowly, Gary closed the door and let out a loud sigh whilst I crossed my arms, just thinking of poor Amy. "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that…" Gary spoke. "...poor kid, she doesn't deserve this at all."

"No one deserves this." I replied. "She's a good person, I really hope she pulls through." It was then that I remembered Gary's admission of not ever being bitten, and I decided to ask about it. "Hey, Gary?" I asked. "Yeah?" Gary replied. "Why'd you lie about the fact you've never been bitten?" Gary let out a sigh in response and idly stared at his missing finger.

"Early in the apocalypse, I joined a group that seemed good. Food, water, and the people were just people trying to get used to the end." Gary paused before he continued. "It's...where I met Harley." I saw his composure falter a bit, but he retained himself. "There was this woman, Penelope, she was a massive bitch. She always wanted control, made sure that no one challenged her, basically, the only people she treated with a hint of respect were those who weren't weak and those who sucked up to her."

Sounded like Thomas alright.

"I ignored her for a while, but when she actively began capturing people and making them prisoners, it came tough to ignore." Gary said. "You do anything?" I asked. "I couldn't, I had to keep my head down in order to survive." Gary replied. "Eventually, we got into this spat with another group that Penelope was trying to capture, mainly stemming from one of the guys, Wendell, losing his arm to two people one of the opposing group members killed and let turn. Wendell went to get revenge, and he nearly killed the guy who got his arm taken, some bearded guy, but it turns out they took another guy hostage, Terrance I think his name was."

I felt my head itch at the name, as it somewhat sounded familiar. Gary didn't notice, and continued with his story. "We caused one of them to get separated, some young woman, but Harley and I lost her when we tried to track her down. It wasn't until we got back to the camp that we found out Penelope gave up on capturing them all and killed two of their guys." Gary proceeded to sit down on a nearby chair and continue his story. "Penelope was able to track down the truck they used, and we managed to shoot out the tire and knock the truck over a hill."

"Did anyone get out?" I asked. "The co-leaders, bearded guy and a guy with a beanie." Again, I racked my brain as the last guy sounded familiar. "Penelope did everything she could to make them fail in her sick challenges for them, but they managed to survive. She decided to kill them herself next by feeding them to the undead." Gary looked down at the floor once he said this. "That Terrance guy, he had enough of her, and he shot her dead." Gary looked up at me and stood.

"I guess what I'm saying is that the reason I lied is because Thomas was like Penelope, an arrogant psychopath who made it their mission to keep complete control over everyone they're watching over, not caring who dies as long as they're in charge." Gary said. "If I wanted to stay, I didn't want a repeat of Penelope, and that's why I lied about being bitten."

The door swung open just as Gary said that, and Brock was standing in the doorway, looking even more pissed than he was when he told off Gary. "You...lied?!" Brock yelled. "It works, seriously!" I yelled. "Yeah, then what was all that about Gary lying?!" Brock replied. "You were never bitten, you just lied and gave everyone a little false hope on how less people could die!"

"Brock-" I said, but he cut me off again. "For all I know, you intentionally decided to cut off Amy's arm for no fucking reason!" Brock stopped for a moment, then walked towards the exit, but before he left he looked back at me and glared.

"After everything Amy and I have done for you, being your friend, trusting you, saving your damn life, and this is how you repay us?" Brock huffed. "Screw you." Brock left the room, leaving me and Gary alone, trying to process what just happened. Not for long however, as Jane and Judy entered carrying a basket of medical supplies.

"Jane, Judy, can I ask you something?" I asked. Jane and Judy stopped and looked at me in curiosity. "How many people don't know about the brain?" Jane and Judy looked at each other uneasily. "They've...never dealt with this before."

I couldn't help but just laugh. Laugh in disbelief and in anger at this. Not only did these people somehow survive for six years without knowing about the amputation (which I could sort of understand), but they somehow survived without knowing about destroying the brain before turning.

"Quentin, are you alright?" Jane asked. "Oh, I'm just fine knowing that not a single fucking person here knows about destroying the brain to prevent turning!" I yelled. "We could've not had one of our gardeners die, and what's even better, Amy wouldn't be on that bed right now with her arm missing!" I threw up my arms and walked outside, just wanting to go to bed after everything that just happened. However, just as I shut the door, I saw Andrew standing there, a stoic expression on his face.

"Andrew." I said. "What happened?" Andrew asked, and I just let out a noise that sounded like a sigh and a laugh at the same time. "Get this, so first off, turns out Amanda decided to not only get her friends to set up a plan to fucking rape me, which was why we held off on the mission, but also, after one of her buddies killed Ashley and Jeffrey, Amanda said she was fucking pregnant!" Andrew raised a brow, but didn't speak up. "And guess what, turns out no one knows about the destroying the brain part, so know Brian's dead, and Amy's missing an arm and Brock's pissed at me because Gary lied about being bitten, and now that those fucking sickos are after us, it's like we're a goddamn skinny kid against fifty jocks in a dodge ball game, so basically, we're fucked!"

Andrew still didn't speak, he just let me yell it out, and it honestly helped a bit. As I was approaching the house I had decided to take residence in, Andrew spoke up. "Tomorrow." Andrew said. I looked back at him confused. "Tomorrow, we go and talk to Johnny and Peter, get them on our side, and I'll go with you."

"Anyone else coming?" I asked. "Just you and me, besides, we need to focus, and considering Brock's pissed, Amy's out of it, Gary's confrontational and Gabriel's not the most serious, plus I actually know where they are."

"Alright, I'll see you in the morning." I said as I opened the door to my house. As I was about to step inside, Andrew spoke up again. "I saw your list of council members, and I saw I was on trading." Andrew said. "Really?" I asked. Andrew, for the first time since I've met him, gave me a small smile.

"If it makes you feel any better, I accept."


	21. Lincoln College

_**-Quentin's POV-**_

The next day, Andrew and I got into the car I drove with Amanda and Daria on that day. Andrew, noticing my unease about driving, had elected to drive whilst I sat in the passenger's seat, which I was grateful for. Before leaving, I checked up on Amy, who was still out of it and being checked on by Jane and Judy. Additionally, I did notice Noam also unconscious and bandages were wrapped on his left side. According to Judy, the when the bullet hit Jeffrey, it ricocheted off of the vertebra, which was lucky as had it not, the bullet would've hit Noam's lung.

"So, Andrew, where are we heading first?" I asked. "Lincoln college, it'd be better to start with that group, considering the history we got." Andrew replied. "Also, what happened with them?" Andrew sighed. "Basically, I met two of them on a patrol, and they were open to trade. They also took me back to the college to show that they were serious, had a depot set up and everything." Andrew replied. "When I told Thomas about it, he basically told them to fuck off and that we didn't need to trade to survive."

"Why am I not surprised?" Andrew chuckled at my response. "It really didn't help that there was a really bad winter that followed soon after, and they just barely survived." I vaguely remembered that two years ago, there was a particularly bad winter that I was just barely able to survive, albeit not without getting a number of blisters from frostbite. Looking back at Andrew, I saw him holding his right hand out, where I noticed a slight discoloration on Andrew's skin. "Frostbite is a bitch." Andrew then paused for a brief moment before speaking again.

"We're here."

Andrew stopped the car and stepped out, as did I. I quickly noticed the tall wooden walls looming over us. The walls appeared to be rather sturdy, and looked as if very little damage had been done to them. In front of us were large wooden gates that seemed to be the same size as the gates. "Come on." Andrew said. As he stepped forward however, a shot rang out, followed by some dirt kicking up in front of Andrew.

"Hey!" The two of us looked up to see a bald man with a light brown beard standing on the wall holding a rifle. "Shit, Oney?!" Andrew yelled out. The man, Oney, lowered the rifle a bit to look at Andrew, but then glared at him. "Andrew, here to fuck us over more?" Oney asked. "No, I just want to talk with Johnny."

"Why?" Oney asked. "To make more false promises?" Oney aimed at Andrew. "Do you realize how we almost died during that winter?!" Andrew raised his hands. "Oney, what the hell are you screaming about?!" Another voice ran out. The source came into view seconds later as a young, brown haired tan man with a thick beard wearing a green hoodie. Once he saw Andrew, he gave him a nasty look.

"Andrew." Andrew simply raised a hand in response. "Hey Johnny, can we talk?" Andrew asked. So this was Johnny, looked younger than I expected, especially for six years into the apocalypse. "Fine, but this better be good." Johnny gestured for Oney to open the gates, and as the gates opened, I got a look at the large college in front.

Lincoln College.

To my surprise, no one else was outside, likely because it was early morning and everyone was just waking up. Considering that Oney was the only one up on the wall guarding, he was likely on the night shift. Walking inside the college, Johnny led us up to what I presume was formerly the Headmaster's office. Fitting I suppose, considering he was the leader. Inside the office was two people, one being a woman around Johnny's age with blonde hair and a man with a bald head and dark brown beard. He looks a bit similar to Oney, but he was a bit older and had a much more intimidating look.

"Who are these two?" Andrew asked. "The woman is my wife, Candice." Johnny leaned over and kissed Candice on the cheek. "The other guy is Tommaso, he's my second-in-command and sort of my lieutenant." Tommaso gave Johnny a brief nod before Candice left the room and Johnny sat down across from me and Andrew.

"He's here because of protection." Johnny replied. "I'm surprised he knew to be here." I replied. "He knows when he's needed, that's why he's my second-in-command." Johnny gave Tommaso a smile, then turned back to us. "So, what're you doing here?"

"We're here to hopefully establish an alliance." Andrew said. Johnny just laughed. "Let me guess, Thomas put you up to it just to rub it in our faces?" Andrew shook his head. "No, Thomas is dead." A small pause followed before Johnny spoke again.

"Well, I hope he suffered." Johnny replied. "Why do you really want to ally with us?" I decided to speak up. "We're in trouble, there's a group that's attacking us and we need help." Johnny raised a brow at my words, then turned to Andrew. "Who's this?" Johnny asked. "Quentin, he's the new leader." Johnny stood up and outstretched his hand, and I shook it, feeling his firm grip.

"Look, I'll be honest, even if Thomas was dead long before, I'm not sure who you're fighting against." Johnny said. "Some guy named Seth, he's a cult leader of some kind I think." I replied. "Listen, I have a lot of people to protect here, my wife, kids, all these people here. I'm not sure if I want to fight against a group that we haven't even met."

"We can make an offer!" I abruptly said, causing Johnny to jump a bit in surprise. However, he calmed down and stared at me intensely. "What kind of offer?" Johnny asked. "Look, whatever you need, you got it, this can be a new start, and I'm willing to cooperate with you if you help us out, and when we win this war, we can set up a trading line and maybe even expand the communities." Johnny rubbed his beard in deep thought, and I grabbed onto the pockets of my jacket to keep my hands from shaking.

"If you can give us food, then we got a deal."


	22. The Airport

_**-Quentin's POV-**_

After leaving Lincoln College with a hopeful deal for the future, we decided to head over to the airport next, and along the way, I decided to talk with Andrew in order to pass the same.

"So, Andrew, what's your favorite tv shows?" Andrew just gave me an amused look in response. "Not a lot to see on the road huh?" Andrew asked. "Yup, and I'm not about to start playing I spy." Andrew smirked and rubbed his chin for a moment. "Outlander was my favorite back then." I raised a brow. "What's that about?"

"It's about a nurse in World War II who was transported back into 1743 Scotland and meets a highlander during the Jacobite Risings." I saw a little twinkle in his eyes as he talked about the show, indicating that he was rather passionate about tv shows he used to watch. I was too, as I remember curling up with Garrett on our couch and binge-watching Game of Thrones.

Dammit, I still missed Garrett after all these years.

"I voted for you." Andrew suddenly said. "What?" I asked. "During that whole election thing, I voted for you." Andrew replied. "I wasn't wrong to do so."

"Why do you say that?" I asked. "Seeing you come through that wall to save Rock Hill, despite the way we treated you, it made me realise you knew that there were people who were just people who didn't understand what was going on." Andrew spoke. "Amy was the one who convinced me to go back." I replied.

"You realize that you're bigger, stronger, and more experienced than Amy, and knowing her, she didn't force you." Andrew said. "You could've left, even when Amy asked you to stay, but you didn't." Andrew smirked. "Honestly, without you, I think those nutjobs would've taken us all out a lot earlier and much more easier." I smiled back at him. "Quentin, by the way, I don't blame you for what happened to Amy."

"Good." I replied. "I'll be honest, I don't blame Brock for acting that way." I raised a brow. "Why do you say that?" I asked. Andrew took a deep breath. "Before Brock, Amy and Gabriel got here, Brock's father got bitten on the arm, and Brock cut it off." Andrew spoke. "I guess he died of blood loss, but it didn't matter, Brock believed it didn't work, and well, he got really damn depressed."

"What happened?" I asked. "I don't know the full story, I think you should ask Gabriel, he'd probably know." At that, Andrew pulled over and in front of me was a rather small airport, which was odd considering I've never seen an airport this size. It looked like it could fit a plane or two, but to me, it seemed more like an airfield than an airport. Andrew beckoned for me to follow, and so I did.

"Hey!" A voice shouted. The two of us turned to see a young man with blond hair and a thick beard staring at us intently whilst aiming a handgun at us. "Who the hell are you?!" I quickly noticed he had a rather noticeable accent, likely british. "I'm Quentin, this is Andrew, we're just looking to talk with Peter." The young man didn't back down. "Bullshit, you're likely with those psychos from the woods!"

"Tyler, what's going on?" A new voice spoke up. "There's some guys here." Tyler replied. Another young man came into view, likely in his mid 20's (a lot of young leaders here, wow) who had long hair that was slicked back. His hair color was difficult to describe, but it looked like a combination of blonde and light brown. His beard was also rather light as well.

"Who are you two?" The man asked. I noticed he also had an accent. "I'm Quentin, and this is Andrew, we're from Rock Hill." The man nodded. "I'm Peter, and the kid over here is Tyler." Tyler gave a small nod in response. "What're you doing here?" Peter asked.

"We're here looking to gather allies, we're planning on going to war against these psychos-" Peter cut me off. "Do they let people turn?" Peter asked, his eyes wide. "Yeah, they do."

"I'm in." Peter replied without hesitating. That was oddly easy. "Really?" Andrew asked. "Those assholes killed a good amount of my friends, just because we didn't join their little 'cult'." Peter looked back as a man in his thirties with brown hair and a beard came into view. "Tucker, come with me, we're going to check out this base." The man, Tucker walked outside and unlocked the gate that was between us and Peter. "Peter, are you sure about this?" Tyler asked.

"I'll be fine Tyler, don't worry."

Two minutes later, we were back on the road driving to Rock Hill, with Peter and Tucker sitting in the back whilst Andrew drove and I sat in the passenger's seat. "So, any other allies you got?" Peter asked. "Possibly, we may have a college group on our side." Peter smiled. "Hold on, there's something up ahead." Andrew stopped the car, and in front of us were a group of people all holding rifles. However, what caused my heart to nearly stop was the fact that at the front, Seth was standing there with a smile on his face.

"Out of the car." Seth spoke. Seeing no other options, we all stepped out of the car and waited for Seth to speak. "So, I see you're gathering allies." Seth said and his grin widened. "No idea what you're talking about." Tucker suddenly spoke up.

"Do I?" Seth asked, and paused for a brief moment. "Peter...you really should have known better, all those times where I had your people become ascended, I warned you." Seth pinched the bridge of his nose, and I noticed his voice begin to waver. "…I did my best to make you aware of what would happen if you attempted to fight back." Seth sighed loudly, and I felt chills run up my spine as Seth spoke in a eerily calm demeanor.

"…You got careless." Seth paused yet again. "I'll look after your people. They will be cared for and protected and they will be shown the error of their ways, and they will repent for their sins." Seth said. "You have my word." Another long pause followed, the group of sixteen people including Seth standing there idly. Seth then grinned madly.

"At least I gave you that, before you go." Seth turned to a man with brown hair and a beard. "Evan?" The man, Evan, raised his rifle and proceeded to shoot Tucker in the chest. "Tucker! No!" Peter yelled. Peter attempted to rush to him, but the sound of multiple guns being raised stopped Peter in his tracks. "Brodus, Rich, take him to be ascended." A large man wearing a baseball cap and a short, black man with dreadlocks proceeded to pick up Tucker and drag him away whilst the others aimed at Andrew, Peter and I. It was then that I noticed the two other people who were there when Seth killed Thomas, Kenta and Ronnie I believed their names were.

"Remember this, for it will happen more if you try to fight back." Seth said as he and the others walked off, leaving the three of us standing in front of the car with a puddle of blood. "Peter, I'm sorry." Andrew said. Peter just looked at the ground, his expression furious while he clenched his fists so hard that the knuckles turned white.

"This doesn't change anything." Peter said, then looked back up at me. "If anything, that made me more sure that I want each and every one of those lunatics in the ground." Peter put a hand on my shoulder. "Mind if you drive me back so I can tell the others what happened?" Peter asked.

"No problem." I replied. Minutes later, we drove back to the airport and just as Peter was about to exit the car, he turned to me. "Quentin, despite Tucker's death, it's just gonna make us fight harder, so on behalf of everyone at the airport, we're with you."

With that, the army was finally complete.


	23. Medicine Run

_**-Quentin's POV-**_

Despite what had happened with Tucker, Andrew and I returned to Rock Hill with high hopes for the future. We not only had an army, but we also buried the hatchet between Lincoln College and Rock Hill and also had the opportunity to establish trading lines. However, once the two of us walked through the gates, Jane came running over to me in a panic.

"Jane?" I asked. "What's wrong?" Jane heaved a bit, likely from the running. "Amy's condition got worse, the wound is infected and she's still losing blood, and we're running out of medical supplies." Jane replied. "Shit, any place we can go to get that stuff we need?"

"Yes actually, there's a pharmacy that hasn't been picked clean for some reason." Jane looked back at the building Amy was in, and looked back at me. "Just in case, I think we should bring some people." Jane said. "I'll round up some people."  
About a hour later, I managed to round up Shawn, Gabriel and Garrison to accompany Jane and I to the pharmacy, and as we were about to head out, I noticed Brock walking over to us, not even looking at us. "Brock?" Garrison asked. "I'm coming too." Brock spoke. I really didn't mind this at all, more the merrier I guess. On the way to the pharmacy, I decided to try speaking with Brock.

"Brock?" I asked. Brock ignored me. "Brock, look, I-" Brock cut me off. "Don't." Brock said. I left him alone as the pharmacy came into view, and it was then I saw why the pharmacy, as well as the adjoining building haven't been touched.

A large amount of lurkers were trapped behind a rusted metal fence that must've been part of a safe-zone at one point. Judging by the age of the lurkers inside, it seemed that they were there since the early days of the outbreak. "Should be easy, they're all skin and bones." Garrison said.

"We still should be careful." Shawn replied, and I gave Garrison a look in order to stop him from replying. "Think there's any way in?" Gabriel asked. "Check around the back, maybe someone tried to get in before us." Jane replied. Sure enough, behind the pharmacy was a large gap in the fence that we could all fit through. Seeing a backdoor, the six of us proceeded to open the unlocked door and pile inside.

"Alright, what do we need?" Gabriel asked. "We just need some gauze pads, some disinfectant and anything else you can carry, we need this stuff." Immediately, the six of us split and began stuffing pills of all sorts in our bags. During this, I noticed Gabriel come over to me.

"Hey Gabriel." I said. "Hey, Quentin." Gabriel replied. "So, what do you think about Amy?" I asked. "You mad at me?" Gabriel shook his head. "No, I'm not, I think you did the right thing."

"Brock doesn't think that." I replied. "Yeah, Brock's pretty pissed, but…" Gabriel trailed off, raising my curiosity. "Huh?" I asked. "Look, I really shouldn't tell you this, but I think you deserve to you, especially considering how Brock's acting." Gabriel took a deep breath.

"Amy and I met Brock and his father early in the outbreak, saved us from a group of lurkers chasing us." Gabriel began. "Brock's dad was a good man, tough, but kind at the same time." Gabriel paused and smiled. "He taught me and Amy how to shoot."

"Must've been close." I said. "Trust me, out of all of us, Brock was the closest to his dad, which makes sense, considering that he taught Brock how to drive, fix cars, shoot, basically everything you need to do to survive." Gabriel replied. "He was in the Korean war, so he knew how to survive a lot of pretty bad situations, and had no problem killing lurkers."

"Hey, you guys getting that stuff?" Jane asked. "Yeah, we're getting it." I replied, and motioned for Gabriel to continue. "One day however, Brock's dad got bit, lurker came from out of nowhere while he was boarding up the windows." Gabriel continued. "Amy and I accepted it, as did he, Brock didn't, and he cut off his own dad's arm."

"Fucking hell…" I replied. "I think Brock didn't wrap the touri...turni…" Gabriel waved his hand in an attempt to remember the word he was trying to say. "Tourniquet?" Gabriel sighed. "Yeah that, basically, he didn't wrap it tight enough, so his dad bled out."

"Damn…" I solemnly responded. "Brock thought that the amputation wasn't enough, and well...he entered a really dark place that Amy was able to bring him out of." Gabriel said. "That's why he's acting like this?" I asked. "Kinda yeah, not sure if it excuses anything, but I'm guessing he's acting like this because he's scared of going through this again." Gabriel then stood up and slung the knapsack he had over his shoulder. "I think my bag's full, I'm going to check out the office."

Once Gabriel opened the office door and stepped inside, a lurker leapt out at him and shoved him against the fire alarm, triggering it and causing a loud ringing sound to emit. As Shawn ran over and stabbed the lurker in the head, the rest of us looked over at the unboarded windows, where lurkers were slamming against them and making cracks. "Shit, we gotta move!" Garrison yelled. However, when Garrison ran to the back and opened the back door, he was met with a number of lurkers waiting for him.

"Shit get back!" Garrison yelled as he slammed the door. "We're trapped!" Brock yelled. "We need to wait for an opening and get out!" I said, pulling out my machete. Meanwhile, Shawn got his knife ready, Garrison prepared his meat cleaver, Jane got her wrench out, Gabriel gripped his baseball bat tight, and Brock took a few practice swings with his hammer.

When the first lurker came into through the window, I ran forward and quickly decapitated it with ease. A second came out, and Gabriel bludgeoned it to death. A third appeared, and Shawn stabbed it in the head. This went on for several minutes until the back door burst open, and more lurkers poured in. At one point, one of the lurkers grabbed Shawn and attempted to bite into his neck, but to my surprise, Garrison leapt forward and sliced the lurker's head clean off.

I had no time to react however as a lurker tackled me from behind and knocked me over, and I was barely able to get my hand under its neck in a desperate attempt to avoid being bitten. A loud crack was heard seconds later, and I saw that Brock had slammed the hammer into the lurker's head and proceeded to pull it off me. "Come on, move!" Brock yelled. Grateful, I stood up just as Jane kicked a lurker's knee out from underneath it and slammed a shelf on its head.

"We need to get that alarm off!" Garrison yelled. Suddenly, he was tackled by another lurker and nearly got a chunk taken out of him, but Gabriel ran over with a fire extinguisher and swung it, causing the lurker's head to cave in. Once Garrison recovered, he ran to the fire alarm and shut it, and we all breathed a sigh of relief when no more lurkers came into the store. "Anyone bit?" I asked as I pat myself down.

"I'm good!" Gabriel said, with Shawn, Jane and Brock confirming that they were fine as well. Looking back at Garrison, he nodded his head and said he was good. "Thanks Gabriel, that fucker nearly took a chunk outta me." Gabriel gave Garrison a thumbs up in response, and that's when a shout echoed from the next building over. "Come on!" Jane yelled as she ran out the back door with us following. She led us into the building, which appeared to be a cafe, and managed to locate where the shouting was coming from.

In the back room, a man was struggling with a lurker, trying to prevent it from biting him. Without even thinking, I rushed over and cleaved the lurker's head in two. The man proceeded to fall on his ass and scoot back against the wall, and it was then that I recognized him.

It was the man who shot Tucker.


	24. Deals

_**-Quentin's POV-**_

Once I recognized him as the man who shot Tucker, I immediately began advancing on him, and he raised his hands in response. "Wait, wait!" The man yelled. "I…"

"You killed that man." I spoke in a serious tone, and crouched down to look at his scared expression. "Quentin, who is this guy?" Gabriel asked. "He's a member of Seth's little cult, on the way back, Andrew and I were stopped by these guys in the road, and we were with two of the airport survivors." I responded, and pointed at the man. "This guy killed one of them." Gabriel ran his hands through his hair while the man kept his hands up.

"Wait, don't kill me!" The man yelled. "Why?" I asked, pointing the machete at him. "I...I can tell you about the revivalists!" The man said. "Revivalists?" I asked. "That's what they're called?"

The man nodded. "If you spare me, I'll help you out any way I can, just don't kill me!" I got up and pondered his offer for a moment, before nodding my head. "Sure." I replied.

Then I planted my foot in his face, knocking him out cold. A long silence followed before Garrison broke the silence. "Nice kick." I couldn't help but snort a bit at Garrison's words, and Garrison proceeded to pick the man up and haul him onto his shoulders, and it was then that I noticed how strong Garrison was. It almost looked like he could rival Andrew in strength, and honestly, now that I think of it, I'd love to see Garrison and Andrew go at it.

On the way back, I felt someone standing next to me, and when I turned to my right, I saw Brock walking next to me and staring, looking guilty and ashamed. Brock proceeded to slowly raise his hand as a slight greeting before he took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry." Brock said. "Huh?" I asked. "The way I acted after Amy got amputated, it was uncalled for." Brock continued. "Brock, it's alright." Brock shook his head. "No, it's not, there's no excuse for how I acted, it was unfair towards you, especially considering that I wasn't there when you cut her arm off." Brock said.

"Um...thanks." I said. Brock then suddenly wrapped his arms around me and buried his face in my shoulder. "I'm so sorry I was such a dick." Brock said. "I just want to say that no matter what happens to Amy, I just want to say thank you for at least trying." Brock released me and Gabriel walked over and patted Brock's shoulder.

"Hey, she'll be fine." Gabriel said, then looked at me. "Hey, um, Andrew told me about the council idea, and well, am I on it?" Gabriel asked, a hopeful smile on his face. "Yeah, you're on law, Amy told me you had a masters degree in law." Gabriel's grin widened. "You won't regret this, I promise!" Brock looked at me as well. "You're on it too, repairs and building." Brock nodded.

Three positions down, and only three only to go.


	25. Interrogation

_**-Quentin's POV-**_

_-Six Hours Later-_

A while later, I decided to have a little chat with the man we brought back. After asking Taylor to be let down into the basement where the man was being held, I was guided downstairs to where he was. The basement was white with a single light above me. In the middle of the basement was the man, who was tied down to a chair with some rope. He was still out, so after I dragged a chair over, I kicked at his leg. He didn't stir, and in response, I just dumped a water bottle I had on his head, causing him to jump.

"Fuck!" He yelled. He looked around wildly before finally focusing on me, and, to my surprise and somewhat relief, he didn't begin struggling. Instead, he just stared at me, fear in his eyes. "Hello." I spoke. It took him a while to reply. "Hi." He meekly said.

"The road, you shot that man." I said, and his eyes widened with fear. "I had to, if I didn't, my emperor would've punished me by sending me to the room of correction!" I noticed the panic rise in his voice. "Okay, okay, stop." I took a deep breath and sighed.

"What's your name?" I asked. "Evan, Evan Korklan." The man replied, still keeping his focus on me. "Alright Evan, who are these people you joined up with?"

"They call themselves the Revivalists, and besides them making people turn, I don't know that much about them." Evan replied. I however, wasn't entirely convinced. "Anything else?" I asked, and Evan thought for a moment before replying. "I do remember they originated somewhere in Florida, and used to live in a big mall before a group wiped a large amount of them out."

"Alright...why were you out there?" I asked. "Be honest with me." Evan gulped in fear. "O-one of the Revivalists got injured, and I was assigned by my emperor to go on a supply run to get medicine for him, but while I was there, I heard the alarm go off, and some of the lurkers got in where I was hiding."

"Why'd the emperor not let him turn?" I asked, confused on the injury part. "I don't know, I only joined five months ago and can't figure him out." Evan replied. "Trying to find out what he's going to do next is like trying to solve a Rubix cube with your hands tied behind your back." Evan laughed a little at his comparison, but I didn't as I was mainly focused on getting information out of him.

"How many are there?" Evan paused. "Answer me, how many." Evan shrugged. "There's a lot, like, so damn many." I stood up, and Evan began panicking. "I'm serious! There's so many of them that I don't know the exact number!" Content with his answer, I sat back down, causing Evan to let out a sigh of relief. "Where are they?"

"I…" I stood up again and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. "If you don't tell me, this 'room of correction' is going to be the least of your problems." Evan furiously nodded his head. "It's a hotel, but I don't remember the name!" Evan shouted.

"How exactly don't you?" I asked, still holding his collar with a white-knuckled grip. "I think the words faded out or maybe they were covered up, but I swear I don't know the name!" Evan was shaking at this point, and I decided to release him and sat back down. "What does it look like?"

"It's big, got no paint on it, it's made of like, the stuff you'd usually think hotels have, it's near Newport." Evan hastily replied. "I'm telling the truth, I swear!" I just pinched the bridge of my nose and stood up, and Evan looked at me in fear of me hitting him again.

"I know how to get there." A voice chimed in. Turning, I saw Amanda standing at the top of the stairs, and I felt my stomach churn with anger. Amanda noticed this, and raised her hands. "I used to work there before this as a receptionist, I can take you there." I raised a brow. "Plus, I need to be useful somehow, after everything that happened."

"Alright, you can help, take us there tomorrow."


	26. Night Watch

_**-Quentin's POV-**_

Despite the fact that I was set to go on the trip to spy on the hotel that Evan told me about tomorrow, I was assigned to guard duty alongside Shawn. Admittedly, since Shawn and his group were recruited, I haven't really talked to them much, mainly because of the memories of Amanda and the leadership situation. Regardless, I've tried to make some kind of effort to talk to Shawn, and I noticed that he did the same, albeit at rather poor times. They weren't embarrassing or anything, they just usually came at moments where I was rather busy.

Upon climbing up to the wall with a rifle on my back, I noticed Shawn standing there, staring out into the dark with a rifle of his own. "Hey." I said, and Shawn glanced at me and nodded. We then began to watch for any movement, and luckily there was none. I did also remember I just had to stay up here for thirty minutes before someone relieved me.

"So, Quentin, what did you do before everything happened?" Shawn abruptly asked. I was a bit taken aback by the suddenness of this question, but nevertheless, I answered his question. "Boxer." Shawn gave me a small grin.

"Really?" Shawn asked. "Amateur or Professional?"

"Amateur, was hoping to go pro within the year." I replied. "As you can see, that didn't exactly work out." Shawn let out a small laugh. "Want to hear my profession?" Shawn asked. "Sure." I replied. To my surprise however, Shawn looked away, and despite his dark complexion, I could tell he was blushing. "Nevermind, it's stupid."

"Shawn, you asked, I accepted, come on." I replied. Shawn shook his head. "It's embarrassing." Shrugging, I just went back to watching for any signs of movement. It was then that I realized that this scenario reminded me of the WalMart. Ben and Eric's fight to be more precise, and I remembered the state of Ben's corpse after being pushed off the roof by Eric. It didn't help that not only did Shawn look a bit like Ben, he was wearing similar clothing as was Ben the day he died.

"Pornstar." Shawn said. I actually had to run that back through my head again due to the abruptness of it all. "Embarrassing right?" Shawn forced a grin as he looked at me. I just gave him an odd stare, causing him to look away. Honestly, I didn't know what to say to that, so I just went with the first question that popped into my head. "Why'd you do it?"

"I've...uh…" Shawn hesitated. "I've never been in a relationship before and I wanted to know what it was like." I raised a brow. "Did you like it?" I asked. "I mean, you are aware that the relationships in those are faker than the Kardashians."

"First off, fuck the Kardashians, second, well…" Once again Shawn hesitated. "...I'm aware it was fake, but I liked it." As Shawn began drinking from a water bottle, I decided to ask a much more risque question.

"What did you star in?" I asked, causing Shawn to choke a bit and spit out some water. It would've been amusing, but I was too tired to laugh. Shawn took a deep breath. "Both, gay and straight, why do you ask, watch any before?" Shawn asked.

"Nah, I had a boyfriend, so I had no need to, even though we never fucked." Shawn snickered a bit. "What's so funny?" I asked confused. "It was how casual you said it." Shawn replied. "Hell, I'm a pornstar and I get embarrassed just talking about this stuff, while you just treat it like it's just a conversation." Shawn laughed. "Why is that?"

"...because it's a conversation?" Shawn looked away embarrassed once again. "Hey, look, it doesn't matter what you were before this, what matters is that you're alive." Shawn smiled at my words. "Thanks for understanding, and well, I never thanked you personally for taking me and my friends in." Shawn said. "Considering what's going on, you could've easily thought we were with those nutjobs and shot us dead, but instead, you took us in."

"Welcome, and by the way, how are you doing fitting in?" I asked. "We're fitting in well, Rajeev managed to gain a group of friends that play cards with him on a daily basis." Shawn replied. "I recently saw them playing poker together."

"I think I heard about that, apparently Bobby and Adeel are really good at cards and Curtis and Aiden have terrible luck." I said. "Yep, it's interesting that Rajeev and Adeel get along, considering the history between India and Pakistan." Shawn replied. "History buff huh?" I asked. "Yeah, one of the guys here, Windham I think, has a ton of history books and gave me a lot of stuff, and turns out Hubert was a fan of that too, so Windham's basically Hubert's new best friend." Shawn then paused for a rather long time, which intrigued me as this was the most talkative I've seen him ever since I met him.

"I like you." I looked at Shawn with an incredulous expression. "Honestly, you're brave, you're strong, intelligent, you know what to do, and it helps that you're pretty attractive." Shawn said. "I...I really like you Quentin." Shawn stared at me with hopeful eyes, but I just let out a sigh.

"Shawn, don't get me wrong, I'm flattered by what you said, but…" Shawn looked down at the ground in embarrassment. "It's not that I'm not interested, it's just with everything that's going on, the leadership, the alliances, the war, Amy's condition, Amanda's pregnancy, it's too much."

Shawn looked away dejected and embarrassed, and I stepped forward to comfort him, but decided against it. Needless to say, the remainder of the watch was spent in complete awkward silence until Hubert came up to relieve me. After waving at Shawn to bid him goodnight, I went down to my home and immediately passed out.

And for the first time in months, I dreamt about Garrett.


	27. Who They Are

_**-Quentin's POV-**_

_-Four Years Ago-_

Ten minutes later, I was finally out of harm's way. The ambush from those bandits jarred me greatly, and as I caught my breath, it was then that I remembered everything that happened. Haley, Kirby…

They were all dead. Every single one. I had no idea where Lex was, and the kids were with that Zack teenager in some random place that I didn't know how to find. I was essentially all alone, and once I realized that, my mind quickly went to Garrett.

Seeing him there, laying on the ground with his eyes staring into nothing as blood pooled from his head, it was too much. I felt myself softly begin to sob at the loss of not only my boyfriend, but what was left of my family. Garrett didn't deserve this, he didn't at all.

My head perked up once I heard the familiar sounds of human footsteps in the distance, and I turned my head in the direction of the sound. It was then that a man with greying brown hair emerged, and I seethed with anger as I recognized him as one of the bandits from the ambush. Looking closely at him, I noticed his arm was bleeding, and he was holding a pistol.

"What the fuck?" The man spoke in a gruff voice. Feeling my anger flare once he spoke, I leapt up and slammed into him, causing him to let out a gasp as he collided with a tree. "You motherfucker!" I yelled as I began to throw punches at him, and he coughed and winced and yelped in pain with each hit. "You killed him!"

"Please...don't…" The man weakly spoke, and raised his hand in a desperate attempt to make me stop. In response, I slapped his hand away and punched him in the nose, and I noticed his nose had been bent significantly at the punch. Seeing a heavy log on the ground, I picked it up and held it up over his head. "Wait!" The man yelled.

I didn't care, and I just slammed it on his head for the first of seventeen times.

_-Present Day-_

I woke up in a sweat, remembering what I dreamed about. What happened after Garrett, the realization I was all alone, and finally, finding one of the bandits who was responsible for Garrett's, Haley's, and Kirby's deaths and beating him to death. Shivering a bit, I kicked off my covers and got dressed, then opened the door to be met with the familiar harsh light of the rising sun. Glancing around, I noticed the lack of people around, and I assumed they had all went to get breakfast. Sure enough, when I went to investigate, there was a large amount of people all sitting around tables eating food whilst Joseph and Jessica handed out food.

"Hey, Quentin!" I heard Judy shout from behind me. Turning, I saw Judy and Jane sitting together, waving me over whilst they ate, and upon closer inspection, it appeared they had a stack of books and a sheet of paper in the middle. "Hey, what's up?" I asked. "Have a seat, we're just talking Harry Potter."

Admittedly, I have read Harry Potter before, and I mentally cringed as I remembered Garrett was a fan of those books. It didn't help that he got me into them as well. Despite this, I made an effort to talk with them. "Really?" I asked. "Yeah, we're trying to find out which houses some people would be in." Jane spoke, then held up a piece of paper. "Me and Judy are in Ravenclaw." I didn't exactly remember the Harry Potter series all that well, but from what I did remember, I'm certain that Ravenclaw mainly demonstrated intelligence. Fitting I suppose, considering that Judy and Jane were the only surgeons here.

"Wanna help us?" Judy asked. I nodded my head and Judy scratched her head for a bit before answering. "I'll go first, Gabriel." Judy looked over at Jane. "Oh, definitely Hufflepuff, he's the definition of one!" I raised a brow. "Forgive me, can you explain?" I asked. "It's been a while since I've read the books." Jane gave me a warm smile.

"Hufflepuffs are loyal, dedicated, fair, tolerant, kind, patient, and modest, and Gabriel fits that very well." Jane spoke. "I've never seen Gabriel act modest before." I replied. "I mean, I know he graduated with a masters degree, but he's never rubbed it in our faces, and honestly, that's what I really respect about him." Jane said. "It also helps he's very tolerant, and well, considering our relationship…" Jane kissed Judy on the cheek at this. "...it makes me grateful."

"Gabriel did have a crush on me at one point." Judy said. "Really?" I asked. "Yeah, I had to tell him, and thank god he was very cool with it, and we're actually still good friends." I shrugged. "Hufflepuff it is then." Jane thought for a moment. "Amy?" Jane's and Judy looked away for a second, and I could tell they were feeling guilty. Looking to salvage the situation, I just chose Hufflepuff.

"Your turn." Jane said. "Let's go...Brock." I replied. "Gryffindor, without a doubt." Jane said. "He's brave, courageous, and super protective of those he cares about." Judy nodded at this. "Same, gryffindor all the way." Judy was next, and it was then she noticed Garrison leaning against a building with a cigarette in his hand. "Garrison?" Judy asked.

"Fuck, that's a tough one." Jane replied. "It's like, he's got a good heart, I think, but he's fucking scary." I let out a chuckle at this. "I'm going Slytherin, mainly because he reminds me of Snape." Jane said.

"I'm going with Gryffindor, trust me, you don't know him like I do." I replied. "Really?" Judy asked. "Yeah, he's actually a very brave and caring person." Judy shrugged in response. "I guess Gryffindor too." Jane's turn, and she rubbed his chin for a bit. "Lionel."

"Slytherin." I replied. "Slytherin." Judy responded. "Slytherin." Jane finished, and we all laughed at the unanimous decision. "Go on Quentin." Judy said. "How about Andrew?" I asked. "I would pick either Hufflepuff or Gryffindor." Judy said. "He's good with plants, but he also cares greatly for those he trusts." Jane raised her finger. "I'm going Gryffindor, mainly because the sorting from what I believe is based on personality." I agreed with Jane, and we spent an hour naming off people who would be in each house. Trinity would be a Ravenclaw due to her wittiness (I only learned this though a story about how Trinity verbally murdered Frank), Colby and Shawn would be Gryffindors, and Amanda would be a Slytherin (Jane also admitted to finding out about what Amanda did, and, like many other residents, were rather pissed at her). Finally, when they came to me, it was unanimously agreed that I would be a Gryffindor.

Looking at the time, I noticed I had about ten minutes before the scheduled spy mission, and I was about to excuse myself, but Jane stopped me. "Wait, we just…" Jane sighed. "We're so sorry for what happened to Amy." Judy said. "If we hadn't put down Jeffrey, she wouldn't be missing an arm, and well, we should've known about destroying the brain by now."

"How exactly did you get this far without finding out?" I asked. "We've been here since the outbreak began, and we just got lucky I guess, everytime one of our own come home with an injury, we've been able to fix them up well." Jane spoke. "It helps that Judy was a paramedic." I smirked a bit. "It's fine, you saved, but you'll need to know this in the future." Jane and Judy nodded, and I noticed Garrison walking up to me holding a rifle.

"Come on, it's time to see what this hotel looks like."


	28. Spying

_**-Quentin's POV-**_

Ten minutes later, Garrison, Amanda and I decided to head out to the hotel to get some info on the Revivalists. Along the way, I noticed Amanda kept stealing glances at me, and whenever I turned to look at her, she looked away, a guilty look in her eyes. Garrison noticed this, and gave Amanda a harsh glare, which I understood, considering the history he had.

"We're here." Amanda said. Garrison stopped the car and stepped out, holding a hatchet in his hands and giving it a few good swings. "Let's go." Garrison said, but as he stepped forward, Amanda put a hand on his shoulder and gestured at a hill. "Better view point from there." Amanda said.

The three of us proceeded to climb up the hill and we found ourselves surrounded by trees and bushes, and right in front of us was the hotel that Evan told me about. Admittedly, Amanda did find a good vantage point, as the bushes and trees provided ample cover. Garrison took out a pair of binoculars and looked through. Not even a few seconds passed before an audible gasp emitted from Garrison.

"What is it?" I asked. "Look at this." Garrison handed the binoculars to me, and as I looked through, I nearly felt my heart stop.

The front of the hotel were packed to the brim with Revivalists, all of them were mingling with each other, and it was near impossible to count them, but I could tell there was definitely over thirty of them there. Looking further down, I noticed a chain-link fence that had lurkers tied to it, and I knew going over the fence was not an option if we wanted to attack them.

"Get down!" Amanda hissed as she noticed a truck coming by. Quickly, we ducked down as the truck drove by and stopped at the gates, causing the chained lurkers to loudly growl. "That's a big truck." Garrison mumbled, then looked through the binoculars once again as the gates opened and people began to file out. "How many fuckers are in there…" Garrison muttered. "There's like, twenty of them in there."

Once again, the sound of a truck grew louder, and after we again hid, I noticed it was the same size as the truck that just arrived. Jesus, how many were there? Garrison looked through the binoculars again, and groaned again. "Here comes another." Garrison said, and sure enough, a third truck the same size as the first two came into view. "Is that it?" Amanda asked. "I think-" Garrison looked back yet again. "Wait, there's another."

Good lord.

"Oh my god, there's a fifth one." Garrison groaned again. "Amanda, how many rooms are in that hotel?" I asked. "From what I remember, the hotel has about twelve floors, and is pretty wide and can fit about fifteen rooms on each floor, and each room has two beds, so assuming that they're using both beds, it looks like…" Amanda hesitated. "...Two hundred and eighty."

I felt my heart nearly stop once she said that. "Two hundred and eighty?" Garrison looked over at me. "Even worse, those trucks are big, and we could add another hundred."

Three hundred and eighty.

"Um, we should go." Amanda said. Not wanting to blow up so close to the hotel, I quietly left with the others, and as we were walking back, I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Hey, Quentin, can we talk?" I heard Amanda say. Garrison gave her a look, but I shook my head. "Go on." Garrison hesitated, but shrugged and walked ahead to the car. Amanda took a deep breath. "I'm so sorry for what I did." Amanda said. "What I did was absolutely awful, and after I found out I was pregnant with your child, I realized I couldn't be this person anymore."

"What person?" I asked, slightly intrigued. "I couldn't be a stupid whore anymore." Amanda said. "I lost friends, I lost family, and now I lost my self-respect, because I had to stoop that low just for a selfish reason." I just raised a brow in response. "Why'd you do it?" I asked.

"I…" Amanda paused. "I've wanted a kid for a long time now, but unfortunately, every boyfriend I've been with was a massive douchebag, and I didn't want a kid growing up around someone like that." Amanda began. "I wanted to find someone who was strong, righteous, intelligent, basically everything you and Jonathan were."

At the mention of Jonathan, I did remember Trinity and Amanda got into a fight over Jonathan, and Trinity mentioned Amanda wanted to steal Jonathan from her. I also couldn't help but feel a twinge of sadness at Jonathan's mention, as, despite me knowing him only briefly, he was a decent person. "What are you getting at?" I asked.

"I wanted my child to have a good life, to be strong, to be alive, and well, you seemed to be the embodiment of everything I wanted in a person, but when I found out you were gay, I had to improvise." Amanda replied. "But now, my child is going to be forever haunted by the reality of how he was conceived, and when I realized that, I'm thinking it wasn't worth it."

"So, you're more concerned about the child than how I feel?" I felt my anger flare. "Do you realize how many nights I've stayed awake worrying I hurt you?!" Amanda looked away guiltily. "God fucking dammit…" I muttered. "I'm so sorry…" Amanda weakly said.

"Look, I'll accept the child as my own, but if you're going to have to do a lot to make it up to me."


	29. Trade

_**-Quentin's POV-**_

Upon arriving back at Rock Hill, I was met with a very unexpected surprise, as I felt something collide with me and nearly take me off my feet. Seconds later, I looked how to see a familiar wave of blonde hair hugging me tightly. "Quentin, thank you!"

The hair moved and I saw Amy looking at me with a massive smile, her eyes teary as she hugged me tightly. Not being able to help myself, I hugged her back, and I noticed Brock walk over to me, a smile on his face. "Quentin, I don't know how I can thank you." Brock said as he hugged me as well. "Think you can find me an airhead?" I asked, remembering that was the only candy I would willingly eat before the apocalypse. "You got it, I'll head into town as soon as I can and see if I can find it."

It was then that Amy raised her stump and moved it up and down. "Well, at least I can still shoot." Amy said with a smile. It was then that I noticed the lack of Gabriel. "Where's Gabriel?" I asked. "Gabriel said he had a surprise for Amy, and wanted to go get it." Brock replied.

"Hey, sorry to interrupt, but can we talk?" I heard Andrew ask. Leaving Brock and Amy behind, I followed Andrew over to the familiar gazebo where Colby told me about Amanda. "What's up Andrew?" I asked.

"I've been thinking, we should invite the leaders here to hash out terms, you know?" Andrew spoke. "If we want this alliance to get off the ground, we need to prove that we're serious about this."

"I see your point, but we can't exactly start now, especially since the Revivalists know what we're up to." Once I said that, I was instantly reminded of the trucks that came to the hotel, and a thought came into my mind. If there were trucks there, there'd likely be outposts as well. "Andrew, can we hold off on this?" I asked. "I just thought of something."

Andrew shrugged and left, and I went over to where Evan was being held, and noticed one of the residents, Drew standing guard. "Let me in." I requested. Drew stepped aside and I walked inside and down the stairs, where Evan was idly whistling a tune that I didn't recognize. "What's that?" I asked.

"Some old song, doesn't really matter." Evan replied. "So, you need anything?" I sat down in front of him. "How many outposts are there?" I asked. Evan hesitated, but a small glare from me shook him up. "There's about five, twenty-five of them at stationed at each one." Well, at least Garrison was close in determining how many Revivalists there were.

"Where are they?" I asked. Again, Evan hesitated, but I didn't have to glare at him this time for him to crack. "There's one at an old hardware store, Moe's or something, it's in Filbert." As I was about to ask him where the other outposts where, but suddenly, Andrew threw the door open.

"Quentin, get up here right now!"

At Andrew's urgent tone, I ran up the stairs, and Andrew led me to the entrance of the base, where, to my horror, a large group of Revivalists were standing there, Seth at the front. "I would like to speak to the leader." Seth spoke, and I slowly made my way over to Seth. "Hello?" I asked. "Ah, you're the leader." Seth said, a grin on his face. "It's nice to meet you." To my surprise, Seth outstretched his hand and, not wanting to annoy Seth, I shook his hand, much to his delight.

"Smart choice." Seth spoke. "What do you want?" I asked. "I'm aware that you have one of my followers in your home, keeping him hostage and using him to gain information on us." Seth replied. "I know that Evan is in there, and all I want is him back."

"Hell no!" I heard a voice say. Turning to my left, I noticed Lionel standing there with a rifle aiming at Seth, prompting a number of other Revivalists to aim at Lionel. "Lionel, stand down." I spoke in a calm voice. "Fuck you, we're not letting go of our only chance of winning!" Seth chuckled in response. "I had a feeling you were going to say that." Seth looked back at two of the Revivalists, a black man with a bandana and a bald man, and nodded.

Two of the revivalists moved aside to show a bound and gagged Gabriel, who I could tell was panicking despite the gag. "Now, we have one your people, and unless you don't want him to be killed, we'll be taking Evan." I looked back at where Evan was being held, and then at Amy, who was pleading with me to accept Seth's offer. Evan for Gabriel. I was about to open my mouth to reply, when Brock cut me off.

"Wait." Brock said, and stepped in front. "Take me instead." Amy looked at Brock astonished, whilst Seth gave Brock an amused stare. "Why should I?" Seth asked. "I'm a member of the council, I work on repairs and defenses, so I'm more valuable than him." Brock replied. Seth pursed his lips at Brock's response, as if pondering his offer.

"You're a brave man." Seth spoke with a smile, and gestured at the Revivalists to release Gabriel. "Don't worry Amy, I'll be fine." Brock said to a horrified Amy. He then looked at me and gave me a nod as a teenage boy began to bind him. "Alright, now we'll take-"

A gunshot rang out as the teenage boy's head shot back violently, then fell to the ground along with his body, a nice bullet hole right between his eyes. Looking around, I noticed Lionel aiming his rifle, the barrel smoking a bit, and Lionel himself was glaring daggers at Seth. Seth stood there for a while as he glanced down at the deceased Revivalists next to him. In response, Seth grabbed Gabriel as he was trying to walk away.

"This is compensation." Seth spoke in a menacing voice, and marched both Brock and Gabriel out of Rock Hill, as their prisoners.

And it was all Lionel's fault.

* * *

**_Next time...on the Hell that Runs_**

* * *

_"You're goddamn useless!"_

* * *

_"How do we sneak in?"_

* * *

_"We're going to fight."_

* * *

_"I'd like to have a chat with you."_

* * *

_"Brother or Lover?"_

* * *

_**EPISODE 4: THE FIRST SHOT**_


	30. EPISODE 4: THE FIRST SHOT

_**-Quentin's POV-**_

Brock and Gabriel were taken, and it was all Lionel's fault.

As the revivalists slowly walked out of sight, everyone turned to Lionel, who was still standing there with an angry look on his face, which intensified once he saw the looks on everyone else. "What?" Lionel asked, which gained him a nasty looking punch to the jaw courtesy of Andrew, sending Lionel sprawling to the ground. Honestly, I'm surprised that Lionel wasn't knocked out, as I rubbed the back of my head remembering how hard Andrew hit me the first day we met.

"You fucking idiot!" Andrew yelled. "Why the fuck did you do that?!" Lionel groaned from the hit, and he furiously glared at Andrew. "I did the right thing!" Lionel yelled. "Right thing?!" Andrew yelled, his face red. "We almost had a deal, but you had to fuck it up like you always do!"

This peaked my interest, as I hadn't heard this before. "What the hell do you mean?!" Lionel yelled. "Tom, Aubrey, Darrick, Darryl, Jessika, Antrone, Danilo, remember them?!" Andrew yelled back. "You got them killed because you didn't fucking think!"

Lionel at this point was struggling to speak whilst Andrew kept wailing on him. "All you do is fuck everything up and get people killed!" Lionel began to tear up, yet Andrew didn't care. "You're fucking useless." Lionel wiped the back of his hand on his face, attempting to clean the tears off his face. "I…" Lionel began to say, then he forced a smirk.

"At least I didn't kill my kid."

A massive silence fell over the crowd that had gathered as Andrew stared at Lionel, shocked at what he heard Lionel said. Lionel attempted to get to his feet, but once he saw Andrew's face turn to fury, Lionel began scurrying away.

Andrew on the other hand, looked like he was about to murder someone.

Andrew stomped over to Lionel and pulled him up by the ear and began to strike him numerous times in the gut, causing Lionel to gasp and cough with each brutal blow. Although I didn't like Lionel in the slightest, I knew that if Andrew kept this up, he'd surely break Lionel's ribs, or maybe even damage an organ.

"Andrew, stop!" I yelled as I ran over and attempted to pull him away. "How fucking dare you!" Andrew yelled. As I tried to pry Andrew off Lionel, I realized how strong Andrew was, as despite me pulling on him, he didn't even budge. "Andrew, enough!" I yelled again, and that's when Colby and Sesugh intervened and pulled Andrew and Lionel apart.

Lionel fell to the ground, coughing and wheezing whilst holding his gut, and struggled to get to his feet. Ariya went over and Lionel to his feet, and Lionel raised his hand as if begging to Andrew to stop. Andrew just gave him a nasty glare. Honestly, when it came to Lionel, I was hoping that maybe he could be redeemed. Sure, he was annoying and had a punchable face, but I believed he could be something. But after this, I gave up all hope I had for Lionel being a functioning member of Rock Hill. I didn't want to kill him, as right now, there was enough bloodshed here, and I highly doubted that people wanted to bury Lionel here.

That just left me with one option.

"Get out."

Lionel looked at me in surprise. "W-what?" Lionel asked, seething in pain. "You can't stay here, not after this." I replied. Lionel began to tear up once again. "Y-you're really doing this?!" I just nodded. "I…" Lionel's voice trailed off as he noticed Garrison aiming at him.

Lionel just sniffled and sobbed as he realized that this was happening, and reluctantly, he walked through the gates, officially leaving Rock Hill.


	31. Making Plans

_**-Quentin's POV-**_

Five minutes after Lionel's exile, I went to resume my talk with Evan, who was back to whistling that tune that I didn't recognize. I want to ask him what that tune was, but right now, there were more pressing matters to attend to, mainly concerning where Brock and Gabriel were being taken to.

"What happened?" Evan asked as I sat down in front of him. "Seth came, he wanted you for one of ours, and the trade was going well until one of our own shot one of Seth's men." Evan raised a brow. "Who was shot?" Evan asked. "Some teenage boy, long brown hair, skinny, why?"

Evan sighed. "Colin…" I raised a brow. "Colin?" I asked. "He was a decent kid, just wanted to fit in." Evan shrugged. "Doesn't matter now." Shrugging as well, I decided to ask Evan about Gabriel and Brock.

"Where do you usually keep prisoners?" I asked. "The hotel, more people there, more security, and the hotel's so large that the prisoners will likely get lost in the chance they attempt escape." Evan replied. "How do you get in?" I asked.

"Only way I know is through the front gate." I raised a brow. "I'm serious, but, maybe there's someone else who knows a way in!" Evan quickly spoke, a panicked look on his face. "Maybe?" I asked. "That person might be at one of the outposts." Evan spoke. It was then that I remembered the conversation I had with Evan before Seth interrupted.

"Where are these outposts?" I asked, Evan didn't hesitate at all, which I was grateful for. "There's the Moe's in Filbert, a KMart in Smyrna, a strip mall in Clover, a factory or something in Sharon, and a police station in McConnells." Evan replied. "What does this factory look like?" I asked. "I think it used to be a food processing plant." Evan began. "You'll know you found it when you see the gates." I already had an idea on what the gate was, but just to make sure, I had to ask.

"Will it have those lurkers on the fence?" I asked. Evan nodded. "You saw them?" I nodded, then stood up to leave. "Wait." Evan spoke. Looking at Evan, I noticed him looking rather conflicted. "I've done a lot of thinking, and I think I want to stay with you guys." Evan said.

"Really?" I asked. "I'm done being a part of them, I just joined because I wanted to survive, but I didn't like what I did." Evan spoke, then paused for a bit.

"If I can make a request, I'm going to ask that you spare some of them." I raised a brow. "Who?" I asked. "The revivalists?" Evan nodded. "There's some that are good people, and have just been...misguided." Evan said.

"Misguided or not, they're still dangerous." I replied. "They can be useful, if one of your people get taken again, there can be a trade or something, and you'll have a lot to trade." Evan said. "Plus, if you do manage to get them on your side, they can be useful."

I just nodded in response, and Evan gave me a small smile. "Thank you." Evan said. Walking outside, I decided to get a group together, and about twenty minutes later, I found myself standing in front of around forty-nine people.

"Alright, so, since Gabriel and Brock were taken to the hotel, we need to find a way in." I began saying to the crowd. "Thankfully, the guy we caught gave us the locations of the outposts where one of the residents might know where we can sneak in."

I took out a piece of paper and wrote down the names of the outposts that Evan had told me, then looked at the crowd that had gathered around me. It was then that I noticed Amy in the crowd, staring at me intently. Regardless, I continued. "I'm going to assign some people to go and attack the outposts, so I'm going to start with the factory assignees." I looked into the crowd and I also noticed Shawn there. I felt a twinge of guilt course through me as I remembered how I turned him down. Despite this, I had to assign people.

"Shawn, Rajeev, Hubert, Jason, Curtis, Mattias, Keith, Ishan, Dori, and Mickie, you'll head to the factory." Shawn cocked his head a bit at this, but was led away by Rajeev as Hubert and the seven others walked off.

"For the Strip Mall, Garrison, David, Daniel, Orlando, Edwin, Cederick, Lars, Macey, Ethan and Dana." Garrison proceeded to lead the nine away from the crowd, and then I found myself glancing at Andrew, whose face was still red from Lionel's words.

"Andrew, Ettore, Brodie, Mike, Mary, Paul, Levi, Connor, Victor and Jeremy, you'll be heading to the KMart." Shrugging, Andrew led the others away and I gazed back at Amy, and I knew that I may regret this, but I decided to let her fight.

"Amy, Joseph, Taylor, Erick, Manuel, Chad, Tony, Shelton, Akira and Aiden to the police station." Amy seemed to be surprised by my permission to let her go fight, but she didn't say anything. I looked back at the remaining crowd members.

"Finally, Colby, Kevin, Yuvraj, Jon, Drake, Wallace, Leonardo, and Ariya, you'll join me and Evan on the trip to Moe's." The final spectators walked away, but I spoke up.

"Before you go, try to spare some of them, one of them will help us get into the hotel, and if possible, take down the revivalists for good."


	32. The Factory

_**-Shawn's POV-**_

Sitting in the truck heading to the factory, I couldn't help but feel a bit embarrassed still over that night. I confessed to Quentin, and yet, he turned me down. I understood why, but it didn't make it hurt any less. Rajeev, who had been sitting next to me, noticed my expression and put a hand on my shoulder.

"Plenty of fish in the sea man." Rajeev said. "Not really." I replied, causing Rajeev to chuckle a bit. "Point." Rajeev replied. Rajeev looked over at Hubert, who was quietly loading the rifle given to him. "Hey, look, maybe there's someone else who's interested." I shook my head. "I'm not really in the mood for a relationship now." Rajeev shrugged.

"Look man, I get how you're feeling, trust me, I once asked a girl out, but I got it worse." I raised a brow. "How so?" I asked. "Not only did she reject me, but she also called me a four-eyed nerd." Rajeev replied. "Damn, never knew you wore glasses."

"I didn't really need glasses, but I wanted to be sure." I chuckled a bit, feeling my spirits be lifted a bit, and I looked around the truck to gaze at everyone there. Driving the truck was Dori, with Mickie in the passenger's seat, both having a conversation about tattoos or something. Fitting I suppose, considering Dori was covered in tattoos. Meanwhile, Jason and the brothers, Ishan and Keith, were talking about the strategy to be used when arriving. I've only talked with them each once, but they seemed to be decent enough people. Hubert was the only one loading his gun, which I wasn't exactly surprised at, as Hubert usually was the cautious one. That just left Mattias and Curtis talking with each other about something that I didn't understand.

"We're here!" Dori spoke up. Slowly, everyone got out of the truck and, as Quentin said, there was a large factory looming in the distance. Looking at the fence, it was covered in lurkers that were chained to it. Upon closer inspection, it appeared that there were a few people walking around behind the fence.

"So, what're we doing?" Ishan asked. "I think we should sneak up to the fence, stab some of the lurkers, and shoot through the fence." Jason spoke. "Sounds good." Mickie replied. Following Jason, we slowly snuck up to the fence and stabbed a few lurkers in the head, and luckily, the people there didn't notice.

"Ready?" Keith asked. A small nod from everyone confirmed that they were ready, and quickly, we began firing through the fence, with Rajeev hitting a older black man in the neck and a tall man with a long black beard in the head. However, more of them came out and that forced us back further, with Curtis being hit in the shoulder by a tan bearded man. "Shawn, catch!" I heard Rajeev yell out. Looking at what Rajeev tossed me, I tried to catch it, but when I tried, it tumbled out of my hands, a clicking sound emitted from the object. Looking down at the object, I nearly had my heart stop once I saw what it was.

In a panic, I tossed the grenade over the wall, and a loud shout emitted from the other side as the grenade blew up, shredding a tall asian man with a thick goatee, a man with long brown hair and a beard, and a blonde woman. It was then that we realized the gunshots had died down.

"Think they're dead?" Mattias asked, propping a seething Curtis against the truck. "Lemme check." I said. "Hey, if any people are alive in there, just surrender and we won't hurt you!" No response, but I did hear the sounds of guns being dropped to the ground. Good start.

"I think they're surrendering." I said to the others. Hubert then walked over. "Toss your guns over the fence, just to prove it." Seconds later, about six guns flew over the wall, and I gave Hubert a small nod. "Nice." I said.

The gates opened just as the others walked over, and suddenly, a hispanic man aimed his gun and shot Jason in the head. In response, Dori quickly shot the man in the neck, then the head. "Shit, Jason's down!" Mickie yelled. Looking in front, I noticed that four people were standing there with their hands up, among them being the guy who shot Curtis. Along with him were a black man with dreadlocks, a middle-aged man with slicked back black hair and a thick beard, and a young looking man with a black fauxhawk.

Doing my best to ignore the corpse of Jason, I started towards the four. "Hands behind your back." I said as Rajeev handed me some zip-ties. After we tied them up and marched them to the truck, I began to wonder how exactly the others were doing.

And if they had better or worse luck than us.


	33. The K-Mart

_**-Andrew's POV-**_

About a few minutes after we left for KMart, we arrived there surprisingly quickly. Admittedly, I haven't been this far away from Rock Hill, but I had a feeling the trip would've taken longer. Maybe it was because I zoned out about three minutes into the trip. Upon stepping out of the truck, I noticed something that well, made me feel a bit glum.

Victor and Connor were talking with each other excitedly about something odd, Mary and Mike were being a bit too affectionate towards each other, and Levi, Brodie, Ettore, Paul and Jeremy were just standing guard whilst talking amongst one another. What I was noticing was that I was feeling lonely. I may've not liked either Frank or Thomas or especially Lionel, but at least I could talk with them.

Damn, I needed someone to chat with.

I once again looked around at the people nearby and decided to observe them, starting with Connor and Victor. The two of them were brothers who worked as counselors for a very religious Christianity camp, and from I heard, whenever they played with the children, they got a bit rough. Not sexual or anything thank god, but some kids got bruises from playing tag with them.

Mike and Mary were a married couple who met in high school and began dating two weeks after meeting each other, and both were near inseparable. In public, they were very, very affectionate with each, but at least they kept it to a kissing limit. Additionally, they were decent enough people, although they can be a bit annoying when talking about their spouse.

The others I've never really interacted with, but from what I did remember, Levi was a rather jolly man, Brodie tended to be rather quiet and be the butt of jokes about needing a bath (which confused me, considering we all needed one), Paul was nice but looked intimidating due to his size, Ettore was very optimistic and a very welcome individual along with his friends, and Jeremy was a former cocaine addict who kicked his cocaine addiction soon after arriving, but was suffering from withdrawals, making it look like he still was on cocaine, even though he wasn't.

As I stood up to begin making my way to the KMart, suddenly, a hail of bullets came flying into, and we all scrambled for cover as fast as we could. Unfortunately, Paul and Brodie couldn't get into cover fast enough, and they were gunned down within seconds. Getting behind a rock, I noticed a man with long sandy hair pop up when I looked around the side. Acting quickly, I aimed my rifle and shot him in the red. Turning to the side, I saw a bullet strike Connor in the neck, and I heard Victor cry out in anguish.

I felt a pair of hands grab me from behind and push me into the rock. Dazed a bit, I looked and saw a tan bald man standing over me, aiming at me. Before he managed to pull the trigger however, I kicked him in the knee, causing him to fall over and smack his head on the rock. Noticing him still stirring, I struck him in the head with my rifle, putting him down for good.

Another cry of despair sounded out, although it was immediately followed by the sound of gurgling. Peeking out, I saw that Mike had been shot in the head, and in her grief, Mary had stood up, causing her to receive a bullet to the neck. Popping up again, I saw a black man hit Levi in the shoulder, and I took this opportunity to pop up and shoot him in the head. Seconds later, a loud shout emitted from the KMart.

"We surrender!" At that, a man with an odd beard and black hair walked over raising his hands, a few others following behind him. Looking back, I saw Victor sobbing over Connor's corpse, Levi holding his wounded shoulder, and the others coming up with zipties. After the remaining revivalists were caught, we marched them back to the truck and set back towards Rock Hill.

I just wondered how the others were doing.


	34. Done with It

_**-Garrison's POV-**_

I've never been to a strip mall ever in my life, nor have I ever seen one. In fact, not a lot of people have heard of a strip mall, and the only one who's actually been to one was Daniel. Actually, it was a good idea to take Daniel, as he knew where the strip mall was as he lived in the area prior to the apocalypse. It was also why we had him drive.

Upon arriving at a decent area far enough away from the mall, I took a look at what this strip mall was. Apparently, it was like those places where stores were settled side by side, with a large parking lot in front. Looking closer, I saw a Target next to a Barnes and Noble, so it gave me more of an idea on what it meant.

Looking at the others, I watched as they flocked to each other and begin talking about certain topics. For example, the cousins, Edwin and Orlando, were talking about the mall itself and if anything was left. David and Daniel were talking with a large bald man called Lars about the layout of the store. A buff guy called Ethan and a black guy called Cederick were talking to a blonde woman called Dana about some random topic, and before I could do anything else, I felt someone sit beside me.

It was a woman who I only knew as Macey. I've never had a real conversation with her, but we usually exchanged brief greetings whenever we passed by. She had long blonde hair that was tied back into a ponytail, and, from what I've heard in passing, she was a very, well, classy woman. She wasn't spoiled or anything, she was just classy and well, that did cause her to stick out quite a bit when it came to social gatherings. Not that I haven't been to any of them, but I could imagine so.

"So, you're Garrison, right?" Macey asked. "Yeah." I quickly replied, beginning to focus my attention on reloading my rifle in an attempt to have Macey get the hint. Despite this, she stayed. "Have you been in the army before?" Macey asked. I stopped loading my rifle and gave her an odd stare that she didn't really react to. "Why do you ask?" I asked.

"You just seem like a guy who would be in the army, like I was." Macey replied. "You were in the army?" I asked, intrigued. "Yup, military police officer in the marines." Macey spoke. "I tell you, it's so satisfying when I get to put some macho assholes in their place." I couldn't help but chuckle at this, as, yes, it was amazing when someone was forced to fall in line. "My dad was a sergeant in the army." Macey gave me a sweet smile.

"Hey, we can talk later, let's go." Macey said, and grabbed my hand and yanked me up. Turning back towards the strip mall, we got ready to fire, and, luckily, not a lot of people were there. This was going to be very, very easy.

Aiming, we all opened fire on the revivalists outside. I managed to hit an obese blonde man with a bullet in the head and a tan bald man with a narrow head in the chest. Luckily, due to the fact that we took them by surprise, we didn't lose anyone, and seconds later, we left with our prisoners. A japanese man, a middle aged man with long brown hair, a black man with a thick beard and a pale woman with dark hair.

Now, there was the matter of whether or not Amy and Quentin were alright.

_**-Amy's POV-**_

Ten minutes later, we managed to arrive at the police station, but I was the last to get out of the truck. I couldn't stop thinking about Brock and Gabriel, two of the closest people I had were currently being held hostage by a madman. Honestly, I was a bit more worried about Gabriel than Brock, mainly because I knew Brock was tough, he kept going despite the losses, and was very, very resilient. Gabriel on the other hand, was what Jane would describe as a "smol bean". I did ask her about it, and she explained that she was calling Gabriel precious and adorable. Gabriel never knew this, but if he did, I imagine he would be rather flattered and be really, really embarrassed.

Gabriel was too kind for this world.

"Hey, Amy, you coming?" I heard a man ask. Looking up, I saw Akira staring at me curiously, a rifle in hand. Shrugging, I got up and walked outside, holding a pistol as well, considering the lack of an arm, my ability to weld certain weapons became very limited.

"Hey, sorry about Gabriel and Brock." I heard Taylor speak up. "Yeah, we're here for you." Akira spoke as well. They were both nice people, and I did appreciate what they were trying to do, but right now, I was just not in the mood.

"Let me focus." I coldly replied, which surprised the two. At this, I saw Joseph slow his pace to match ours. "I'm so glad Lionel's gone, the guy's fucking annoying." Joseph said. "No one is going to miss him." Taylor replied with a grin. "Raise your hand if you're happy Lionel's gone."

Immediately, everyone raised their hands, which admittedly gained a chuckle out of me that was very much needed. Speaking of which, I actually didn't hate Lionel. I knew he made a big mistake and that did get Gabriel and Brock taken, but it was an effort. However, after he failed to see what exactly happened, I couldn't exactly sympathize with him. That, along with him being a general nuisance made me glad he was gone.

Seconds later, we arrived at the police station to see something rather surprising. The gates were open and a group of revivalists were standing there, not even moving. They were definitely alive, as one of them kicked something over, a gun. There were about nine of them there, and some seemed to be relieved that we arrive, others looked like they wanted to tear us apart. Suddenly, a black man with dreadlocks and a bandana walked over and raised his hands.

"We surrender."

Oddly easy. The man turned around and placed his arms behind back, and motioned for the others to do the same. After we tied them up, we began to march them back to the truck, and it was then that I decided to talk with the "leader" of the nine. However, before I could get to him, I heard a small chuckle emit from beside me. Looking in the direction it came from, I noticed a man with black hair and a beard that was covered in tattoos, grinning at me.

"What?" I asked to the man. "Aren't you that chick whose brother and boyfriend are our prisoners?" The man asked. I felt my anger flare at this, but I ignored him. "Hang on, you are…" The man said. "Damn, I must say, I heard your brother is a massive crybaby." I clenched my fist and slowly began reaching for my pistol. "Like, holy shit, I think that he pissed himself when my emperor showed him the knife."

"Don't." I spoke, venom in my voice. "As for your boyfriend, I have to admit, he's got balls, even when my emperor began cutting his arm, slowly…" The man kept going, a grin still on his face. "Who knows, maybe he'll be evolved by the time we convert him due to his stubbornness."

I had enough. I quickly swung my pistol at him, smacking him in the face and knocking him down. I then aimed at him. The man stared at me in terror, but forced a grin. "You don't know how to use-"

I took the safety off, causing him to go quiet. "Right now, I'm not in the mood to be talked down to by some scumbag like you, my brother and boyfriend are in there with your psycho leader, and I don't know if they're alive or dead or worse, and if you decide to talk more shit about me or anyone else here, I will shoot you."

"Please, don't!" A woman yelled. "Please don't shoot my husband!" The woman was short with long brown hair and was wrapping her arms around the man. Reluctantly, I put the gun away and gestured for the woman to get him up. "Phil, please never do that again." The woman said, and the man, Phil, nodded at her.

As the prisoners got into the truck, I heard the sound of a radio, and Akira proceeded to hand the radio to me. "Hello?" I asked, and Quentin answered.

"We found him."


	35. Found

_**-Quentin's POV-**_

About a few minutes later, the ten of us arrived at Moe's, and we all got out. "This is the place." Evan said, gesturing towards a hardware store with a sign above saying "Moe's Hardware Store". As we started to get ready, I took a look at everyone who had accompanied us.

I did remember Jon from my first time out of the cell in Rock Hill as one of the people who were demanding justice. He looked like classic trailer park trash, and usually had an angry expression on his face. However, from what I heard from Colby and Jon's wife, Renee, he was actually a nice person, albeit a very quiet person.

Speaking of Colby, I found out that he actually wasn't Caucasian, but Armerian, and was also pretty good friends with a woman called Rebecca. Apparently, Rebecca was also the cousin of one of the other people who had joined us, that being Wallace. Then my attention turned to Yuvraj and Ariyra, who were both decent enough friends. I did also remember that Yuvraj had two cousins at Rock Hill, Gurvinder and Harvinder.

After a while, Colby and I went over to Evan, who was chatting with Leonardo about the store. "So, Evan, do you think that the person we're looking for is in there?" Colby asked. Evan nodded. "I'm positive, his name is Alex." At that, we all turned back towards the store and, upon seeing some people walking around, we opened fire.

Unfortunately, we quickly lost a man as poor Jon received a bullet to the chest. That wasn't going to go over well with Renee. However, Colby quickly avenged his fallen friend by killing the man who shot Jon, a bald man with a wide face. That was followed by another one of ours, Drake, being hit in the neck.

Realizing we were on the losing side, I looked over at Colby. "Shit, we're losing people fast!" At that moment, Yuvraj went down with a thud. "We're gonna have to get on the side, maybe we can get an angle on them!" Colby replied. Meanwhile, I noticed Evan sneaking around to the side with a rifle, just as Kevin was shot down.

"What the hell is he-" Colby didn't get to finish his sentence before Evan suddenly opened fire, shredding the revivalists that were attacking. Everyone else looked up once the bullets stopped, and just easily walked inside, but not before putting down the wounded.

Walking inside, I heard a faint groaning as a man was laying on the ground, clutching his knee in pain. Realizing he was crawling towards a gun, I started towards him, but Evan ran over. "Stop, this is the guy!" Evan yelled.

"Evan?" The man asked. The man had long brown hair and a beard, and looked to be in his thirties. "Alex, we need you, right now." The man, Alex looked at Evan curiously. "Wait, why?" As Evan kept talking to Alex, I decided to call up Amy. Once I heard Amy pick up, I told her the good news.

"We found him."


	36. An Offer

_**-Quentin's POV-**_

About half a hour later, we all decided to meet up at a turnpike that was close to Rock Hill. For my group, it took a while due to us having to carry Alex into the truck whilst he struggled to escape. It also took all my power to avoid decking him right there. When arriving at the turnpike, I noticed that Garrison's and Andrew's group were already there, and about a minute after we arrived, both Shawn and Amy arrived.

"So, we got prisoners?" I asked once Amy and Shawn stepped out. "Yeah, you?" Shawn asked. "Yeah, but we got the only one we need." I replied, and gestured to Alex, who was bound and gagged. "Who'd we lose?" I asked.

"Lost Jason." Shawn said. "No one." Amy replied. Garrison repeated what Amy said. Then it came to Andrew, who looked away guiltily, and it was then I noticed the glum expression on the faces of those behind Andrew. "Brodie, Paul, Mike, Mary and Connor, they're gone…" At the mention of Connor, Victor began sniffling over the death of his brother. I sighed once I remembered the others who had died. "Jon, Yuvraj, Kevin and Drake."

After a few moments, we went back to Rock Hill, but when we got there, we were met with a surprise.

Seth was standing there, alone, with a smile on his face. Immediately we all went for our guns, but Seth raised his hands. "I'm here for Quentin only." Seth spoke. I cocked my head a bit in confusion. "I have an offer for you, just come with me alone." Garrison then spoke up.

"How do we know you're not gonna just kill Quentin?" Garrison said. Seth kept his smile. "If I did, you'd come after us." I turned towards Garrison. "I'm going to see what he wants." I said, and Garrison opened his mouth to reply, but decided against it. However, he looked at a watch he had and back at Seth. "Six o'clock, he better be back alive, otherwise, we're coming." Seth nodded.

"Gotcha." Seth gestured towards a small coupe nearby and Seth and I stepped inside. Along the way, I looked over at Seth, confused on where he was taking me. Seth seemed to notice my expression, and decided to answer the question I haven't even asked yet.

"I'm going to show you our way, and then, I'll make you a fantastic offer."

About fifteen minutes later, we arrived at the gates of the hotel, and it was then I noticed how intimidating the place was up close. The lurkers on the fence didn't help, as well as the people bowing as Seth entered the gates. I also noticed that the gate was being controlled by the lurkers themselves. Well, kinda. I saw the familiar black man with the bandana throw a piece of meat from something that I really hoped wasn't a human, and the lurkers stuck to the fence moved towards it, pulling the fence open.

When I stepped out, immediately a number of people glared at me, and one of them walked up to Seth.

"My emperor, why is this heretic here?" A bald man asked. "He is here in order to repent for his sins." Seth replied, then turned to me. "I will need a moment, sit in the crowd and behave yourself, I need to make a sermon."

Seth walked up to a podium and raised his hands, and all of the people there sat down. I did also notice some people turn on some radios, likely to let other people hear.

"Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." Seth began. "Jude 14-15."

"We have a special witness today, he is the leader of the heretics, and he has come to repent for his sins." The crowd glanced at me with an angry look. "He is here to learn how we operate." Seth then looked over at three people in the crowd. "We have gained new followers today, and we must baptise them." The three people in the crowd, two girls and a boy, walked over to the podium whilst Seth took out a knife. Each person held out their hands and, with a quick swipe, Seth slashed their hand open.

After the others went down, the meeting was adjourned, and I sought out Seth, who was talking to Kenta. "Ah, Quentin, come with me to my office." Seth guided me to a still working elevator and brought me to the top floor. Figures. As soon as we arrived at his office, I remembered that Brock and Gabriel were here.

"Where's Brock and Gabriel?" I asked. Seth smiled. "I was about to show them to you." Seth stepped towards a curtain and threw it open, revealing two unconscious, bound and gagged figures that belonged to Brock and Gabriel. "They're not dead, do not worry." Seth said, then gestured for me to sit. It was then that I realized they were both in wheelchairs. Sitting down, Seth smiled at my cooperation.

"Now, let's get down to business." Seth said. "I know about the attacks on the base by the survivors who hid to inform me of the attacks." Seth spoke, and I felt my heart nearly stop. "You see, I'm very, very tempted to now kill them both, but I am a generous man despite what you may think, so I'm going to give you a choice." Seth leaned forward, getting pretty close to my face.

"I will allow you to take one of them home, while the other stays here." Seth said. "I won't kill them, but they'll be here for a long, long time." Seth said. "I know that Amy is very, very close to them both, so basically, it's this." Seth said.

"Brother or Boyfriend?"


	37. A Choice was Made

_**-Quentin's POV-**_

I felt sick to my stomach at what I had done. Seth, that absolute psycho, forced me to choose between Brock and Gabriel, and whoever I didn't choose would be forced to stay there with that madman while the one I chose would be safe and sound, albeit with the knowledge of what happened.

Upon arriving at the front gate, I waved my hand to open the gate. Seth was nice enough to give me a ride back, and let me walk the rest of the way. The gates opened up, and Amy was standing there, worried. As soon as she looked behind me, she dashed past me and hugged Brock tightly, who weakly returned the hug.

"Brock, are you okay?!" Amy asked, tears streaming down her face. Brock slowly nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine, my head hurts like hell though." Brock replied. He then looked over at me and hugged me. "Thank you for coming." Brock said, and Amy hugged me as well. Amy then released me and looked around for a bit, and seemed to notice the lack of Gabriel's presence.

"Where's Gabriel?" Amy asked. I let out a deep sigh. "When I was taken there, Seth forced me to choose between Brock and Gabriel." I said, and Amy's and Brock's eyes widened with horror. "I...I chose to keep Brock while Gabriel stayed." Amy collapsed into Brock's arms while Brock held her tightly. Brock then looked over at me, and it looked like he wanted to yell in anger, but he just couldn't. He just did the same as Amy and wept. After about a minute, Brock finally spoke.

"...fuck." Brock spoke. "We have to get Gabriel, who knows what Seth is doing to him!" Amy yelled. "Don't worry, I'll go talk to our 'friend' to get some info out of him." Amy nodded and collapsed into Brock's arms again while I went to talk with Alex. To my surprise, I noticed Evan walking around interacting with Trinity, Andrew and Jey.

"Hey, what's going on?" I asked. Andrew gave me a small smile once he noticed me, which admittedly was kinda jarring considering Andrew's usually neutral expression. "Hey Quentin, we're just talking about Evan's future here." Jey said. "Yeah, turns out he's a former track runner." Trinity said as well. "He could be useful on supply runs." Evan nodded and saw my expression, and pointed to the left. "He's in there." Heading to a nearby shed, I saw another man, Tony, sitting by the door. Once he saw me, he moved away and opened the door.

Entering the room, I saw him bound to the chair with his leg bandaged up, and his long brown hair was dangling in front of his face. Dragging a chair over to sit in front of Alex, he woke up and glared at me.

"Hey, asshole." Alex spat. "I'm not here to kill you, I just want to know where this secret passage is." I said, keeping my cool. Alex just spit in my face. "Fuck you." Alex said. "I'm not telling you shit." Knowing that this wasn't going to be easy, I just grabbed onto his injured leg, causing him to scream in pain. "Okay! Okay! It's in a tunnel system under an overpass!" Satisfied, I walked out and walked over to Andrew.

"Andrew, get the leaders together, we're getting Gabriel back.


	38. EPISODE 5: INTO THE FIRE

_**-Quentin's POV-**_

Holding a pair of envelopes in my hand, I idly tapped them against the desk I was sitting in front of. I was sitting in Thomas's old office, writing to Johnny and Peter about the situation. Additionally, I couldn't stop thinking about Gabriel, and how I just left him there. I felt sick to my stomach once again, and I pulled up a trash bin nearby and vomited into it.

Aside from Amy, Gabriel was the first friend I made at Rock Hill, and he was the one who sought me out. Now that I thought of it, I remembered that Gabriel's leg hadn't healed completely, and a feeling of dread came over me as I imagined Gabriel being tortured in the most horrifying ways possible. Beaten, slashed, smacked, bashed…

Broken…

I shook my head to get rid of those thoughts and walked outside with the envelopes, and called over six nearby people.

"Ron, Allen and Michael, I need you guys to head to the airport and give this letter to Peter, Shinsuke, Saraya and Dean, you three head to the college and give this letter to Johnny." I said, handing Saraya and Ron their respective envelopes. "Andrew can give you directions." The others walked off just as Brock walked over.

"Hey, Quentin, can we talk?" Brock asked, a solemn look on his face. Nodding my head, Brock led me over to a nearby building and took off his hat, exposing his wavy mane of hair and running his hands through it. "How'd you choose?" Brock asked.

"What?" I asked. "Gabriel and I both needed you, you picked me, why?" Brock asked. To be honest, I almost didn't want to choose. I was tempted to just rush Seth and get both Brock and Gabriel out. However, I knew I wouldn't get far. Not only were Brock and Gabriel unconscious, but I had a feeling that Seth was going to be rather tough, and even if I beat Seth, I had to fight through god knows how many Revivalists in order to get out alive.

"I didn't choose, Seth forced me to." I replied. Brock didn't say anything, and just shook his head. "I'm sorry." I said, and Brock gave me a look. "Don't apologize, you were forced into a bad situation." Brock said. "I mean, I want to be mad, but I just can't…"

"Why is that?" I asked. "It's like that whole Amy thing again, I didn't want to any of them hurt, and I got irrational." Brock began. "But, the more I think about it from your perspective, I just can't be mad that you had to choose between me and Gabriel." Brock huffed. "Personally, I wish you chose Gabriel, but obviously, I didn't have any say in the matter." Brock then looked up at the wall.

"What happened to Lionel?" Brock asked. "We had to exile him." I replied. To my surprise, Brock looked rather shocked, but not too much. "Never expected that, I thought you'd kill him." Brock spoke after about ten seconds. "There was too much bloodshed here." I replied. "Way too much." Brock just nodded his head in response. "I agree with your decision."

_-Two Hours Later-_

Two hours later, the groups returned with the leaders at their side. I did notice that each of the leaders brought two people along. Johnny, of course, brought Tommaso along and a random woman I didn't recognize. Peter brought Tyler and another man with a large head.

"So this is Rock Hill?" The man at Peter's side asked and, like Peter and Tyler, he had an accent. "It's big." Tyler nodded at him while Peter walked up to me. Smiling, I outstretched my hand and Peter took it. "Hello again Quentin, you remember Tyler, right?" I nodded my hand. "Who's the other guy?" I asked. "Oh, this is Jordan." Peter replied, and the man, Jordan gave me a simple nod.

"Make yourselves cozy, I'm going to talk with the college group." Peter nodded, and just as I was about to head towards Johnny, I felt a hand on my shoulder. Turning around, I saw Garrison standing behind me with a panicked look on his face, staring at the college group. It was rather odd to see Garrison like this, as he was usually serious and fearless.

"Garrison, what's wrong?" I asked. Garrison pointed at the woman.

"That's her...that's the girl I raped…"


	39. The Plan

_**-Quentin's POV-**_

Oh dear lord.

Looking over at the woman, I noticed she was talking with Leah and Amanda, oblivious to Garrison's presence. "Garrison, you need to hide." I said. Garrison nodded, but just as Garrison started to walk, a shrill voice sounded out.

"You!" I looked back to see the woman stomping over towards Garrison, who was petrified in fear. "You motherfucking rapist!" The woman took out a pistol and aimed at Garrison, prompting me to step in her way. "Get out of the way!" The woman yelled. "This fucker deserves to die!" In the corner of my eye, I saw Garrison's expression fall into a glum look. Johnny and Tommaso came running over.

"Dakota, what's going on?!" Johnny asked. "The fucker behind him was the one who raped me!" Dakota yelled, and Johnny's eyes widened. "Are-are you serious?!" Johnny asked in astonishment while Tommaso just looked indifferent to the whole situation.

"She's right." Garrison said.

Garrison proceeded to step past me and get on his knees. "I raped her." Garrison said. "What the…" Johnny spoke in shock. "...I wanted to save my friend, but I was tricked and raped her without even a second thought." Garrison said, and proceeded to press his head against Dakota's gun. "I don't deserve to live after what I've done." Garrison mumbled, and closed his eyes, waiting for the shot.

Dakota put the pistol away.

"I can't kill you." Dakota said. Dakota just walked off, and Garrison stayed there, kneeling and breathing heavily. Desperate to salvage this meeting, I invited Johnny and Peter up to the office. Before joining them, I grabbed Brock and Evan to join us.

Sitting down in the office, I noticed how small it was, mainly due to the amount of bookshelves and chairs in the room. Sure, we were all able to fit, but Brock and Evan had to stand. A long silence followed before the first word was spoken.

"So, what's the plan?" Peter asked. Before I said anything, Evan raised his hand.

"I have an idea." Evan said. "What I can do is give myself up, say I escaped from you guys, hopefully it will distract them." Admittedly, not a bad idea. Brock then spoke up. "What I can do is hopefully lead you to Gabriel." Brock said. "But I think we'd be better if we had more backup." I said. "No worries, Amy can come with us." Brock replied, causing me to raise a brow. "Really?" I asked. "Yeah, I'm certain Amy can take care of herself."

"What about us?" Johnny asked. "The woods can provide lots of cover, and since we'll attack at night, we'll need to wear dark clothes to blend in." I replied. "If you get caught, they'll raise an alarm." Evan said.

"That can work as a signal." I responded. "When we get out of the hotel, you guys open fire on any revivalists that come out." Johnny and Peter nodded at me.

"Let's do this." Peter said.


	40. Into the Fray

_**-Quentin's POV-**_

_-Six Hours Later-_

Waiting until nighttime, it was finally time to go and rescue Gabriel. Thankfully, Peter and Johnny went back to grab some of their own people in order to help out. Peter brought nine people with him while Johnny brought ten. A bit surprising considering Johnny's reluctance to put his people in danger, but we could use the help.

Walking through the woods to the hotel, I noticed Peter come up to me. "Hey, Quentin, first off, thank you for helping us fight." Peter said. "No problem, I'm happy you agreed that fast." Peter's expression then fell. "Um, I'm hoping that we find Tucker at some point, if he turned…" Peter said. "He doesn't deserve that shit."

I solemnly agreed, and my mind went to Gabriel. I really hoped we weren't too late.

Arriving at the hotel, I looked around at the people who had accompanied us. There were eighty-five people who were ready to fight against the Revivalists, including the college and airport group. Damn. That was impressive.

"Alright, everyone remember the plan?" I asked, and everyone nodded. "Good." I replied. "Hey, good luck man." Andrew said. "You better get him out alive." Garrison spoke up. I couldn't speak as I realized what I had done. I brought three communities together to fight against a dangerous enemy. Sure I had some help, but it still felt fantastic.

"Wait, Quentin, before you go..." I felt a pair of lips be pressed against my cheek, and I saw Shawn standing next to me looking away embarrassed. "Shawn, we can talk when we get back." I gave him a small wink following my words, and turned to Evan. "The overpass is to the right, just follow the road." Evan said, and then smiled. "Hey, if I don't make it out, just know that I really appreciate you." I just shook his hand in response, and Evan started running towards the base whilst Brock, Amy and I walked to the overpass and, sure enough, once we reached it, there was a door underneath and we all passed through.

The passage itself was very dimly lit, with only a few candles being the only source of light, and even then, the candles looked close to burning out. Amy seemed to suspect this, as she pulled out a lighter and, instead of lighting the candles, kept the lighter in front.

"If we reignite these candles and someone comes down, that person will likely get suspicious." Good point. Amy passed the lighter to me, and as we snuck down the corridor, the sound of footsteps nearly stopped my heart, and I gestured for Brock and Amy to get back.

"My emperor?" A deep voice asked, and I noticed how Amy grinded her teeth. It was actually a bit frightening, usually since Amy seemed so calm and non-threatening. "Brodus, Evan has successfully returned home." The familiar voice of the emperor followed, and Brock clenched his fist tightly.

"Understood, what should we do with the heretic?" The man, Brodus asked. I already knew he was talking about Gabriel. "Make sure he hasn't passed on." The radio squawked in response. The radio then shut off and the footsteps began moving, and we began following. Seeing the man's physical appearance, I noticed it was one of the people who was with the group the first time I saw Evan and when Tucker was killed.

Going up the stairs to follow him, Brock tapped my shoulder. "We're here, take him out." Nodding my head, I took out my knife and snuck up behind Brodus. Before Brodus could turn around, I jammed the knife in the back of his neck, causing him to let out a gurgled cry as I pushed him down on his front, then stabbed him in the back of the head.

"Alright, he should be up ahead." Brock said, and started to lead the way forward to a hotel room labeled "201". "He's in here." Brock spoke, and cracked open the door.

Gabriel was sitting there, bound with bandages on his face, and I could hear him making noises. I felt my heart sink a bit at the thought that we were too late, but as we moved forward, I swore I could hear crying or something. Listening closely, I realised it was coming from Gabriel.

He was alive.

"He's alive." I said. "Oh thank fuck, we gotta get him out." Amy said. Walking over to Gabriel, I noticed that one side of the bandages were rather bloody. "Get those bandages off him man!" Brock said. I slowly began to unwrap the bandages, and once I did, I almost recoiled in horror.

Gabriel was bloodied and beaten, and his nose was bleeding heavily. He had numerous blue and purple bruises across his face, and due to the crying, it looked like there was more blood coming from his nose than usual. Looking at the right side of him, I noticed something odd with his eye. At first, I thought it was swollen shut, but then I saw a spoon on the ground, put the pieces together, and I felt my heart sink like the titanic.

Gabriel's eye wasn't shut, it was cut out.

"Amy, Brock, don't look." I said, but it was too late. Brock and Amy had noticed, with Brock holding back anger while Amy fell to her knees. "Oh god Gabriel…" Amy weakly spoke, horrified and distraught at the state of her brother. Meanwhile Brock walked over and kneeled in front of him. "I'm so fucking sorry…" Brock went to hug him but Gabriel tensed up.

"Those fucking psychos…" Brock growled. "They fucking cut his eye out…" Brock got behind Gabriel and unbound him, and helped get him up. "We're getting you out, okay?" Brock said, and Gabriel just nodded while sniffling.

Heading back down the stairs, I noticed that Amy had taken out a knife she had and was gripping the handle so tight her knuckles turned pale. Brock noticed as well, but was focusing on Gabriel. I felt many emotions all at once when looking at Gabriel. Anger, sadness, regret, fury, hate, fear...all of those emotions were weighing me down.

That's when a bald man came around the corner and jumped. "What the fuc-" The man didn't even finish his sentence when Amy dashed over and sunk her knife into the man's chest, causing him to stagger back in pain.

Right into the fire alarm, and that meant only one thing.

We were caught.


	41. Get out Alive

_**-Quentin's POV-**_

"Go!"

That was the first thing I yelled once the alarm went off, and in a panic, we all scrambled to the exit. Along the way, a bald man stepped in front of us and raised a pistol to fire, but suddenly, a bat struck him in the back of the head, then again to put him down for good.

"Evan!" Amy yelled in relief. "Shit, you guys alright?" Evan asked. "Gabriel's not great in the slightest." Brock replied. Evan looked over at Gabriel and gasped. "Jesus fucking Christ." Evan said. "I'll help you get out of here, if I go with you through the exit, they won't even notice." I nodded in response whilst Amy began searching the guy and together, we managed to get out through the overpass entrance.

Immediately, we were met with the sound of gunfire, and I realized that now the army was attacking. "Come on, we need to get to them!" I yelled. Evan went over to Brock and helped haul up Gabriel, and together, we made a mad dash to the hill, where we noticed the corpses of some Rock Hill residents.

"Shit, Erick, Orlando and Gionna are dead." I spoke. I've never spoken with any of them before, but I couldn't help but feel a hint of sadness over their deaths. Moving forward, I saw the corpses of Shelton, Ethan and Windham, and four other army members I didn't recognize, likely from either the airport or the college.

Upon arriving to battlefield, I watched as many revivalists were taken down. On the other hand, many other army members were being taken down, such as two more members of the airport group and one from the college. "Shit, you made it!" Garrison yelled, and looked over at Gabriel and grimaced. "Hey, look, if you want, I can run back to Rock Hill and grab the truck so we can transfer the injured back, I can also bring Andrew to watch my back!"

Amy nodded her head, and just as Garrison began to move, a bullet nearly struck Garrison in the head. The only reason he managed to avoid it was due to Dakota surprisingly pushing Garrison out of the way. Garrison seemed surprised, but Dakota just glared at him.

Suddenly, the familiar sound of a herd emitted to the left, and a number of screams sounded out as numerous lurkers emerged from the woods and began biting into some of the army members, including Ariya. Again, I felt some sadness for Ariya, as he seemed pretty capable and I was actually warming up to him quite a bit. In their panic, a number of army members ended up tumbling down the hill, and unfortunately for them, that was where the majority of the horde was.

Realizing what I had to do, I slid down the hill, and when I got to the bottom, that's when a sharp pain emitted from my hip, causing me to fall to the ground in pain and clutch my hip. Upon feeling the wound, I realized it was a gunshot wound. It was then that I noticed the revivalists running back inside, certain that the lurkers would finish off a good portion of the army. I couldn't let anymore people die, and as Brock and Amy helped me to my feet, I made my decision.

"They're not going to make it, I'm going to lure the herd away!" Brock and Amy stared at me with a wide-eyed expression. "Are you nuts?!" Brock yelled. "You're injured, there's no way you'll be able to outrun it!" I shook my head. "It's the only way I can make sure there aren't anymore casualties!"

"Wait, before you go!" Amy dug around in the backpack she had scavenged off Evan's victim, and handed me some firecrackers and a flare gun. "It was on that guy Evan killed, use this wisely." Brock then proceeded to hand me his handgun. "Seven shots, make them count." Brock said, and then gave me a smile and a thumbs up. "Good luck."

As Brock and Amy began to lead the fallen to safety, I fired the flare gun at the ground and watched as the herd came after me, then began to stagger away as fast as I could. Along the way, I fired about four rounds into lurkers in front of me, and after about five minutes of leading the lurkers, I found myself in the middle of a field. The lurkers were a decent distance away, and I led them pretty far, but I realized that I was losing blood. A lot of it.

A bullet then pierced my shoulder, knocking the wind out of me and sending me sprawling to the ground, groaning in pain. Looking up at who I assumed was the shooter, I was shocked to see a familiar face glaring at me.

Lionel.


	42. Lionel

_**-Quentin's POV-**_

Staring up at a seething Lionel, I knew that I was going to die. At least I was dying saving lives, and while yes, I wouldn't like to be killed by Lionel, I was a bit satisfied. Lionel however wasn't, and therefore, I wasn't apparently.

"How fucking dare you kick me out of my own home!" Lionel yelled, kicking me in the rib. "You had no fucking right to kick me out!" Lionel kicked me again, causing me to grunt in pain. "We'd be fine with Thomas, but you had to fuck it all up!"

"I…" I tried to speak, but Lionel interrupted me. "All those ungrateful fucks had to do is say I'm the new leader but no, you had to step up and I had to lose!" Lionel yelled. "And what happened the first night you were leader?" Lionel raised four fingers. "Four people died!" Lionel yelled. "Ashley, Daria, Jeffrey, Brian, all of them are fucking dead because of you!" Lionel huffed.

"I'd be a better leader."

I felt my anger flare at this, as it was mainly because of him that Gabriel was missing an eye. "Gabriel's missing an eye because of you!" I yelled. Lionel scowled. "Well, he deserved it, maybe it'll teach him to man up." Lionel then aimed at my forehead.

"Here's what's going to happen." Lionel began. "I'm going to put you down just like the feral animal you were back in the woods, walk back to Rock Hill and tell them that I tried to save you, but you bled out and before you died, you gave me permission to come back." Lionel cocked the gun, and well, as much as it hurt to say this, I knew I had a plan.

"Okay."

Lionel stopped and widened his eyes. "What?" Lionel asked confused. "You can come back to Rock Hill." Lionel hesitated, so I kept going. "You can even be a guard, all you have to do is get me up and bring me back." I said. "Besides, people will believe you more if you bring me with you."

The sound of the herd drew closer, and I glanced up at Lionel. "You need to make a choice now." Lionel looked at the herd, then back at me, and, albeit reluctantly, he grabbed my arm and lifted me up with a smirk. I didn't plan on bringing him back to Rock Hill however, as right now, he was far too dangerous to even be considered. However, there was something I could use him for.

"That was easy!" Lionel said. "Yeah, it was." I took out my pistol and proceeded to shoot Lionel in the crotch, causing him to screech in pain and fall to the ground squealing while holding his groin.

"You fucker!" Lionel screamed in pain. "You shot my nuts off!" Lionel squirmed in severe pain as the lurkers drew closer, and I took this opportunity to stagger away as fast as I could. Meanwhile, Lionel was weakly begging for help, but I kept going, ignoring his begs as they turned into gargled cries for help.

I didn't even look back.


	43. The Trip Home

_**-Quentin's POV-**_

_-Early Morning-_

I was tired. More tired than I had ever been. Not only from lack of sleep, but also the blood still dripping out of my hip and my shoulder. I felt like I wanted to go to sleep, but I couldn't. I had to make it back to Rock Hill. Wincing in pain, I walked off the highway I was on and leaned against a nearby tree.

I could feel my vision fading. I knew I was screwed. I knew I was going to die. I was going to join Garrett and Kirby and Haley and everyone who died.

No, I was not going to do that.

Hearing the sound of a lurker nearby, I slowly grabbed a nearby branch and pulled myself to my feet and made my way back towards the highway, the lurker following close behind. Turning around to face the lurker, I put my hands out and shoved it down, but grabbed my shoulder in pain. Wincing, I raised my foot and slammed my foot on its head, crushing it and causing me to shout in pain and fall on my side.

I wasn't going to make it, but I was going to try my damndest.

Another lurker came into view, and I struggled to get to my feet, but the pain emitting from my hip prevented me from doing so, and I just accepted my fate at this point. What I said about not giving up? Well, I had no choice now. I was dead. The lurker approached me, ready to bite.

That was, until a gunshot caused the lurker to fall on top of me, and to my surprise, I heard a female speak to me. "Shit, thank fuck you're alright." Looking up, I saw Amanda of all people hauling me up by my shoulders and dragging me along the road. "We were all waiting for you, and since you weren't back yet, I went to go look for you." Amanda said. "I had to leave the car running considering you're likely really cold, I just need to get rid of the lurkers around there!"

Sure enough, there were five lurkers surrounding the car, and Amanda fired two bullets into two of the lurkers, and Amanda took the gun I had and shot the rest, then pushed me into the back seat. "Just hang on, okay?" Amanda said, and with the familiar screech of the tires, Amanda began driving like a mad woman in order to get me back.

The last thing I saw before I passed out was Amanda worriedly looking at me and slamming her foot on the pedal, hoping to not only save my life, but redeem herself.


	44. Home

_**-Quentin's POV-**_

_-Five Hours Later-_

I woke up in a daze, and immediately I felt a searing pain in my shoulder and my hip, and there was something on my head. Upon opening my eyes, I noticed Brock sitting by me, and once he saw me stir, Brock stood up quickly.

"Easy!" Brock yelled. "Dude, you've been through a lot, you need to rest for a bit." Listening to him, I stopped moving. "Thank god you're alright, when the sun began coming up we thought we lost you." Brock chuckled a bit. "You're officially the most badass person ever." I couldn't help but smile, but my thoughts drifted to Gabriel.

"How's Gabriel?" I asked, and Brock's face fell. "Jane said he's alright physically except for the eye, but mentally…" Brock trailed off. "...he's going to struggle, a lot."

"I can imagine so." I replied. "I mean, how can you be fine when you got your fucking eye cut out?!" Brock realized he was raising his voice, then sat down again. "I'm sorry, just...I'm really happy you're okay."

At that, Amy came into view and, once she saw me, wrapped her arms around me, causing me to groan in pain and Amy to let go. It was then I noticed that she had a replacement arm made of wood. Amy seemed to notice, and smiled. "Gabriel made this for me…" Amy said, and her expression faltered a bit before smiling again.

"I can't thank you enough for saving Gabriel." Amy said. "Seriously, I can't." Jane and Judy then walked in at this point. "Alright, shoo, we need to work on him." Judy said with a forced smile. Jane, noticing this, turned to me. "It's Gabriel, she can't stop thinking about him." Jane said.

"Wasn't she a paramedic?" I asked confused. "She usually got calls for heart attacks and that stuff, but never a guy missing an eye." Looking over at Judy, who had just ushered Brock and Amy out of the room, I noticed her unease.

"So, um, Quentin, first off, I'm glad you're alive." Judy spoke after a moment. "Yeah, I'm surprised I'm alive, thank you." I replied. "Amanda's the one you should thank." Jane said. "Yeah, she was the one who found you." I smiled. "Well, I'll have to thank her." Jane paused for a moment.

"Anyways, Quentin, while your shoulder will heal up fine, the bullet didn't pass through in your hip, and it struck a muscle bad." Jane said. "We got it out, but you'll have to rest for a bit and use a cane for a while."

"Um, what's Gabriel's status?" I asked, and Judy noticeably flinched while Jane gave me a sad look. "I asked Brock and Amy to keep an eye on him, and I'll help out just in case he…" Jane paused. "Decides to exit on his own terms…"

I already knew what Jane was talking about, and at that moment, I went to rest again.

_-One Week Later-_

Today was the day I got out of the infirmary, and, like Jane said, I had to use a cane for a while to walk. Staggering out of the infirmary with some help with Jane and Judy, I gazed around the new events that had occured.

The guy who got shot in the shoulder when Jeffery died, Noam, finally was healed up and began a relationship with Leah. I knew this because when I walked past them, they were in the middle of holding hands, and waved to me as I stumbled by.

Noticing a crowd nearby, I began to head there, but I heard a familiar voice speak up. "Hey, Quentin!" I turned to see Andrew and Trinity walking over to me. "I'm glad to see you up." Andrew said. "Andrew was worried you wouldn't make it." Trinity replied, and Andrew smirked at her. "Hey, come on now babe."

Babe?  
"I guess you finally asked her out?" I asked amused. "Aye, it was difficult, considering everything that happened, but aye, we're together." I gave them a thumbs-up and gestured at the crowd. "What's going on there?" I asked.

"Since you were out, the residents decided to vote on the final council member." Andrew said. "Trinity is among the nominees." I smiled at her. "Who are the others?" I asked. "Shawn and Colby." Trinity replied. "Trust me, they're making good points on why they should be on the council, Colby especially." Andrew chuckled at this. "I know Colby's likely going to win since he's more active in defending Rock Hill, but I know that Trinity and Shawn won't give up easy."

I bid them farewell, and I noticed Garrison sitting at a table with a bunch of people, and I noticed that there were a number of black people at the table. Even more jarring was the sight of Garrison interacting with them with a grin on his face whilst Macey sat by his side.

"Hey, Garrison, you're staying?" I asked. I had a feeling that Garrison, as soon as the war was winding down, would take off. "Yeah, I'm done with being alone." He looked over at Sesugh. "Hey, rummy!" A chorus of laughter directed at a flustered Sesugh followed. Seconds later, I noticed Dakota walking by and giving a warm smile towards Garrison. I guess they made up.

Evan proceeded to walk up to me with eleven of the prisoners, Alex among them, and raised his hands when he saw my unease. "They've decided to join us." Evan said. "Jayson wanted to join, but he wanted to keep the prisoners in line, mainly Phil." I did remember Amy speaking to me at one point about some asshole that they captured, likely that Phil guy.

Johnny was still here, talking to Peter about future plans, and once the two noticed me, they gave me a small smile. "Hey Quentin, I'm glad you're alright." Johnny said. "Thanks, I'm sorry about your people." Johnny sighed. "Don't worry, Sabatino, Fabian, Cezar, and Riddick will hopefully understand." Johnny said. "Their deaths weren't in vain."

"Agreed, I may have lost Eddie, Bilal, and Demi, but at least I managed to put down Tucker." Peter said. Johnny put his hands on his hips and gave me a smile. "Why are you here?" I asked. "I just came to check the place out, make sure the wounded are alright." Johnny replied. "I must say the doctors are absolutely incredible." Johnny paused for a moment. "Thanks for setting up the supply lines by the way, and honestly, despite losing four people, I'm willing to work with you."

A few minutes later, Johnny and Peter, along with the people they brought, left. I looked to my left and saw Amanda sitting on a bench, gazing at me. I decided to sit next to her, and once I did, she turned her head away.

"Thanks." I said. "Welcome." Amanda replied. "Why'd you do it?" Amanda sighed at my question. "I told you I was going to do my best to redeem myself, and well, you nearly didn't make it." Amanda said. "Amanda, listen, you definitely redeemed yourself." I extended my hand and she shook it with a smile on her face.

Noticing Shawn nearby, I decided to join him. Shawn looked relieved to see me, and gave me a small smile. "Hey." Shawn said. "So, Shawn, I've done some thinking." I said, causing Shawn to raise a brow. "About?" Shawn asked. "This." I proceeded to kiss his cheek, causing him to blush furiously although I couldn't see it through his complexion. "I think it's time." Shawn grinned madly and kissed me back.

"Hey Quentin!" Brock spoke. Leaving Shawn, I hobbled over to Brock and Amy, who proceeded to put their hands over my eyes. "Uh, what?" I asked, and I felt Brock and Amy move me slowly. "So, Quentin, while you were out, we went back to that hardware store and found a bunch of building material…" Amy said. "...so, we decided to do something." They proceeded to uncover my eyes.

On the large wall were splattered with the words "ROCK HILL" in red paint, and I felt a sense of pride come over me. "That's not all, come on, we did a little something to the office." Brock and Amy led me to Thomas's old office, and I immediately noticed that the sign with Thomas's name was missing. "Yeah, we didn't need any reminder of that asshole." Brock said, and gestured to a wooden board split in half, I noticed the wood particles on Brock's knee. Amy and Brock then opened the door.

The room had been renovated greatly from just a simple office to a full-on council meeting room. The table in the middle had some plaques in front of each of the seats. Brock, Amy, Garrison, Andrew, and at the head of the table was my name. I quickly noticed that Gabriel didn't have a plaque, but I didn't mind. I was more astonished by the fantastic look of the room.

"Wow…" was all I could say. Amy looked over and decided to bring up Gabriel. "Gabriel's...well...struggling…" Amy said. "I'm not sure if he'll be a part of the council at all, which is a shame since we could use his experience as a lawyer." We all went outside, and I noticed that Jane and Judy were outside talking with each other.

"They decided to tie the knot." Amy said with a smile. "Really?" I asked. Brock chuckled. "I've known them for about four years and they've apparently been together for about seven years." Brock then paused for a bit, and dug around in his pocket.

"I think it's time." Brock said, and turned to Amy. "Amy?" Brock asked as he got down on one knee and presented the ring. "Will you...marry me?"

Amy didn't hesitate to say yes.

About six minutes later, I found myself sitting on the steps of the building where the new council room was, tapping my cane against the stone steps. I just took in everything, and I remembered how I got here.

At the beginning, I was a man in the woods who was just barely getting by, who kept their head down in order to survive. It was how I survived for the four years in the time since Garrett's death, and speaking of which, I was finally over him. Sure I would miss him, but it didn't hurt as much.

Then I met Andrew, Lionel, and Frank, and they made me a prisoner at Rock Hill under Thomas's orders. I met Amy, Brock, Gabriel and Jonathan, and in order to save Jonathan from his bite, I cut off his pinkie, leading to Thomas wanting to execute me himself. However Amy, Brock and Gabriel saved my life, but we ended up seeing Jonathan be murdered in cold blood.

We then met Garrison in the train station, and without him, we'd likely be dead. When the train crashed into the wall at Rock Hill, I was reluctant to go back, but I did, and saved many lives. Thomas attempted to kill me, but I revealed the truth about Jonathan. Before Thomas could be punished accordingly, Thomas was killed by Seth.

And a new threat emerged.

Week after week, we struggled to survive without Thomas, until that fateful day where Andrew turned his back on Frank and Lionel, and killed Frank. Additionally, after meeting Shawn, Rajeev, and Hubert, Amanda decided to have sex with me without my consent and when I confronted her, she revealed she was pregnant. Hours before, I was declared the leader of Rock Hill, and after I confronted Amanda, Amy was bitten and I cut her arm off.

That's when I learned that no one knew about destroying the brain.

I was angry, but Andrew helped me get back on track by meeting with Johnny and Peter, and successfully managed to ally with them. Then, when getting medicine for Amy, we found and captured Evan, who eventually allied with us against the Revivalists.

Then Brock and Gabriel were taken, and Lionel was kicked out.

It was difficult, but we managed to get the information of how to get inside the hotel. Then Seth came to me with an offer, and allowed me to take either Brock or Gabriel home. I chose Brock, and Gabriel lost his eye. Despite this, we managed to save him, and in order to save more lives, I led away a herd drawn by gunfire, despite being wounded.

Then Lionel returned and nearly killed me, but I managed to kill him.

I was on my last legs by the next morning, and I was ready to die, but my survival instinct kicked in. I wasn't going to die this easy. Then Amanda saved me, in an attempt to redeem herself, which in my mind, she did. I survived, and now I was living comfortably at Rock Hill as the leader of these people, with two allied communities that will help us fight against the Revivalists.

I knew that they were still out there, plotting their revenge, and I knew that sooner or later, they'd attack.

And I was ready.


End file.
